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V 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/dratstillfounderOOIaneiala 


lPR.  a.  t.  still 
founder  of 
osteopathy^ 


Ml  /^.   ]^NE 

Professor  of  Pathology  in  the  American  School 
of  Osteopathy  at  Kirksville 


Published  by 

The  Osteopathic  Publishing  Co. 
CHICAGO 


U3X  loo 


DR.  ANDREW  TAYLOR  STILL 
FOUNDER  OF  OSTEOPATHY 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 

by 

The  Osteopathic  Publishing  Co. 

CHICAGO 


All  Rights  Reserved 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A.    T.    STILL    AS    A    MEDICAL    THINKER     .      .  1 

Medicine's  Slow  Painful  Reform 2 

Hahnemann,  the  Second  Reformer       ....  3 

Helped  by  Weakening  the  Dose 4 

Eclecticism  the  Third  Reform 4 

A.  T.  Still,  M.  D.,  Brought  a  Scientific 

Therapy 5-6-7-8 

Truth  Usually  Obvious  After  Being  Proclaimed  9 
All  Late  Research  Supports  Still's  Theories  .  -  10 
Results  Prove  Osteopathy  Successful  as  a 

Therapy 11 

-T)    Osteopathy  Founded  upon  Backbone  Lesion 

^  Adjustment 12-13 

V       Zoology  Will  Support  the  Lesion  Theory     .     .        14 
i.     There  Is  No  Other  GeneralTherapy  Today  .    15-16-17 

C4.  T.  STILL,  SCIENTIST  AND  REFORMER  ...         18 

*       Anticipated  the  Best  Scientific  Thinking  of 

^  Europe 20-21-22 

His  Two  Great  Discoveries,  Lesions  and 

Immunity 23 

Was  First  to  Announce  the  Theory  of  Immunity  24 
Osteopathy  Available  in  the  Infectious  Diseases  25 
European    Research    Has    Confirmed    Still's 

Teachings 26-27 

The  Blood  Carries  the  Body's  Healing  ...  28 
His  Immunity  Generalization  Required  Years 

TO  be  Understood 29-30-31 

Great  Thinkers  Launch  Many  Ideas  That  Are 

Found  Wrong 32-33-34 

Vagaries  of  Other  Great  Scientific  Reformers  35-36 

.DOCTOR  STILL  AS  A  THERAPEUTIST     ....         37 

^       Pure  Osteopathy  Makes  No  Apology  for  Con- 

-^  sistency 38 

Manipulation  Is  Its  Method  of  Application  .  39-40 
The  Osteopath  Produces  Tropisms  In  the  Body  41-42-43 
The  Blood  Contains  the  Mechanism  of  Healing       44 

V 


3 


^ 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 

HuBiAN   Body  under   Control  of  Osteopathic 

Fingers 44-45-46-47-48-49-50 

When  Doctors  Denounced  the  Pharmacologists  51-52 
He   First   Perceived   the   Truth   of   General 

Immunity S3 

Osteopathy  a  Complex  System 54-55 

Causes  the  Human  Organism  to  Produce  Anti- 
Bodies     56-57 

OSTEOPATHY  IN  THE  INFECTIOUS  DISEASES     .        58 

Influenza 61-62-63 

Osteopathy  Aborts  Infections         64 

Vaccine  Experiments 65-66-67 

Serum  Tests  to  Identify  Various  Diseases     .  68 

When  Osteopathic  Lesions  are  Caused  by  Toxins  69 
A  Moving  Picture  of  the  Body's  Reactions  70-71-72-73 
Scarlet  Fever  and  Other  Infectious  Diseases  .  74 
Diphtheria  According  to  Osteopathic  Tradition        75 

OSTEOPATHY  IN  THE  INFLAMMATORY  DISEASES      76 

Why  Inflammation  Causes  Pain 77 

Dr.   Still   Early   Perceived  That  the   Blood 

Cures 78-79 

There  Is  No  Pus  In  the  Blood 80 

How  A  Boil  is  Caused 82-83 

How  THE  Blood  Works  Its  Cure  ,  83-84-85-86 

Why  Osteopathy  Prevents  a  Second  Crop  .    86-87 

Healthful  Blood  Nature's  Best  Germicide  .     .   87-88 

Virulent  Tonsillitis 88-89-90 

Drugs  Do  Not  Act  Like  Osteopathy    ....   90-91 

Increasing  the  Body's  Resistance 91-92 

Why  Osteopathy  Refreshes  after  Fatigue         .   92-93 

OSTEOPATHY   IN   THE   GROUP   OF   SO-CALLED 

"RHEUMATIC"  DISEASES 94 

Nearly  All  Pains  Once  Called  "Rheumatic"  94-95-96-97 
When  Due  to  Anatomical  Mal-Adjustments       .   97-98 

Intercostal  Neuralgia 98-99 

Brachial  Neuritis 99 

Promiscuous  Tonsil  Slaughter 99-100 

A  Disabled  Arch  of  the  Foot 100-101 

Sciatica  from  a  Slipped  Pelvis 101-102 

vi 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Infectious  Varieties  of  "Rheumatism"      .     .     102-103 

Inflammatory  "Rheumatism" 103-104 

Osteopathy  Builds  Up  the  Body's  Own  Resist- 
ance        104-105 

"Rheumatic"  Heart 105-106 

The  Earlier  Osteopathy  Is  Applied,  the  Better  106-107 
When  Due  to  Pus  Pockets     .     .  ...      107-108 

Pulling  Teeth  Ruthlessly  Another  Error    .      108-109 
When  Resulting  from  Intestinal  Putrefaction  109-110 

Gonorrheal  Arthritis 110-111-112 

Rheumatoid  Arthritis 112-113 

Osteopathy  Available  in  Pains  of  Mechanical 

AND  Germ  Origin  Both 113-114 

HOW  THE  HUMAN  BODY  IS  OPERATED      ...       115 

Our  Bodies  Built  from  Cells  Like  a  House  of 

Bricks 116-117-118-119-120 

Schwann's  Cell  Discovery  Was  a  Forerunner 

OF  Osteopathy 120-121-122 

Some   of   the   Structures   and   Properties   of 

Nerve  Cells     .     .     .     122-123-124-125-126-127-128 

All  Other  Structures  Vassals  of  the  Brain  and 

Nerves 128-129-130-131-132-133-134 

^^  Body's  Chemical  Action  under  Control  of  the 

Nerves 134-135-136-137-138 

"THE  BLOOD  IS  THE  LIFE"  AND  HOW  OSTEO- 
PATHY KEEPS  IT  PURE 139-140 

All  the  Facts  of  Modern  Research  Confirm 

Osteopathy       .     .     .     141-142-143-144-145-146-147 

Living   Body   Manufactures   Substances   that 

Protect  It 148 

These  Facts  of  Immunity  Explain  Osteopathy's 

Results 149-150-151 

How     THE     "WiDAL     TeST"     TO     DETECT     TYPHOID 

Works  Out 152 

Osteopathy  Assists  the  Making  of  Life-Saving 

Anti-Bodies 153-154 

Actual  Investigators  Put  Forth  No  Claims  as  to 

Cures 155-156 

Still    Foretold    What    Later    Research    Has 

Established 157 

Science  Proves  Cure  of  Disease  Lies  in  the 

Blood  and  Tissues 158-159-160 

vii 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Ehrlich  Proved  Our  Natural  Blood  Resistance 

TO  Disease 161-162-163 

Our  White  Blood  Cells  also  Destroy  Disease 

Germs 164 

Osteopathic  Practice  Upheld  by  all  Biologic 

Discovery 165-166 

Why  Osteopaths  Comprise  a  Distinct  Profes- 
sion      167-168-169 

BODY  CHEMISTRY,  GERMS  AND  OSTEOPATHY  170 
The  Chemistry  of  the  Living  Body  171-172-173-174-175 
Natural  Control  of  the  Body's  Chemistry  176-177-178 
The  Body  Makes  Its  Own  Medicines  ....  179 
Osteopathic  Adjustment  Saves  the  Day  .  .  .  180 
How  Osteopaths  Give  Power  to  the  Heart  .  .  181 
Osteopathy  Fights  on  the  Side  of  Nature  .  .  182 
Scientific  Men  Never  Take  Drugs  Themselves  183 
The  Great  Ehrlich  Abandoned  Serum  "Cures"  184 
Osteopaths  as  Researchers  of  the  Living  Body  .  185 
The  Little  Left  to  Serum  Therapy      .     .     .      186-187 

Infantile  Paralysis 188 

Rheumatism ,  ...    189-190-191 

Malarial  Fever 192 

OSTEOPATHY   POTENT   WHERE   SERUMS   AND 

VACCINES  FAIL 193 

Infectious  Diseases  of  Vital  Concern  to  All    .       193 
Osteopathy  Acts  Like  a  Specific  Treatment  for 

Infectious  Diseases 194 

About  Thirty  Known  Pathogenic  Micro- Or- 
ganisms      195 

Destruction  Really  Caused  by  the  Body's  Re- 
action Against  the  Germ 195 

Infectious  and  Contagious  Diseases  .  197 

Infectious  Diseases  Mainly  Communicable  by 

Human  Contact 198 

Epidemics 201 

A.  T.  Still,  the  Pioneer  Immunologist       .     .     .      202 

Diphtheria 204 

Theories  of   Immunologists  Parallel  the   Re- 

sin.TS  OF  Osteopaths 207 

The  A.  T.  Still  Research  Institute     .     .     .     .      211 

Index 212-217 

viii 


FOREWORD 

Believing  that  the  time  is  auspicious  for  pub- 
lishing an  appreciation  of  Dr.  Still's  work  and 
a  study  of  the  place  he  occupies,  and  will  continue 
to  occupy  for  all  time,  in  the  history  of  medicine, 
the  publishers  looked  around  some  time  ago  to 
select  an  author  in  all  ways  capable  of  writing 
such  a  study  and  an  appreciation,  and  we  were 
fortunate  enough  to  secure  the  willing  service  of 
a  man  whose  own  life  work  has  eminently  fitted 
him  for  the  task — a  man  who  came  into  osteo- 
pathy several  years  ago  with  an  already  estab- 
lished international  reputation  for  his  own  orig- 
inal researches  in  pure  biological  science,  and 
who  is  today  devoting  his  life  to  original  research 
in  osteopathy  and  the  scientific  teaching  of  the 
osteopaths  of  the  future.  We  refer  to  M.  A. 
Lane,  professor  of  pathology  in  the  American 
School  of  Osteopathy  at  Kirksville,  and  director 
of  the  post-graduate  laboratory  there  for  clinical 
diagnosis.  Professor  Lane's  name  and  discover- 
ies are  familar  to  the  students  of  medicine  in 
all  the  great  university  schools  of  medicine  in 
this  country  and  Europe.  They  were  discussed 
with  high  praise  by  Professor  Ernest  LaGuesse 
of  the  University  of  Lille,  France,  at  the  Inter- 
national Medical  Congress  at  Buda-Pesth  in 
1908;  they  are  recorded  in  the  new  text-book  of 
Professor  Biedl,  professor  of  internal  secretions 
at  the  University  of  Vienna ;  in  the  new  text-book 
of  applied  anatomy  of  the  late  Baron  Treves, 
the  foremost  of  British  surgeons,  and  late  sur- 
geon to  the  King;  in  the  new  text-book  of  Star- 
ling, the  foremost  of  English  physiologists;  in 
the  new  text-book  of  Professor  Stewart,  the  fore- 
most of  British-American  physiologists;  in  the 
new  text-book  of  pathology  of  Professor  Mal- 
lory  of  Harvard  University  Medical  School,  the 


foremost  American  pathologist;  in  the  new  text- 
book of  histology  of  Professor  Ferguson;  in  the 
review  of  the  world's  research  work  by  Dr.  Al- 
bert Oppel,  of  the  University  of  Halle,  a  foremost 
authority  in  Germany  and  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. Professor  Lane  has  written  these  chapters 
on  Doctor  Andrew  Taylor  Still  and  his  place  in 
medicine  with  the  pen  of  a  man  whose  touches 
are  sure  and  true,  whose  insight  comes  from 
practical  and  precise  knowledge,  and  whose 
acquaintance  with  the  historical  development  of 
medical  science  is  inferior  to  that  of  no  American 
writer  on  these  subjects.  In  these  analyses  we 
see  the  "Old  Doctor"  rising  to  the  full  measure 
of  his  scientific  stature;  we  see  for  the  first  time 
the  complete  articulation  of  osteopathy  with  the 
scientific  progress  of  the  age,  and  we  see,  again 
for  the  first  time,  portrayed  the  f undemental  rock 
upon  which  Andrew  Taylor  Still  laid  down  his 
science  and  art  when  he  gave  osteopathy  to  the 
world.  Although  the  contents  of  this  book  were 
written  for  publication  as  ten  independent  arti- 
cles, each  discussing  a  phase  of  Dr.  Still's  work, 
they  articulate  naturally  without  revision  when 
grouped  as  chapters  in  a  book,  revealing  only 
slight  evidence  here  and  there  of  repeating  a 
statement  or  allusion,  which  of  course,  would 
not  have  been  the  case  had  the  author  written 
his  matter  in  the  first  place  for  publication  as  a 
book. 

— The  Publishers 


A.  T.  STILL  AS  A  MEDICAL  THINKER 

In  order  to  comprehend  osteopathy  we  must 
comprehend  the  work  of  Andrew  Taylor  Still, 
and  to  that  end  we  must  know  in  a  clear  way 
something  of  the  immediate  predecessors  of  the 
man,  together  with  something  of  the  medical 
world  upon  which  the  eyes  of  A.  T.  Still  opened 
and  into  which  they  looked  with  the  sharpest 
criticism  of  the  ages. 

Improvement  in  human  institutions  comes  about 
by  two  methods,  which  are  in  reality  two  aspects 
of  one  fundamental  fact.  These  two  are  reform 
and  revolution.  Reform  is  slow,  revolution  rapid ; 
but  the  results  accomplished  by  both  are  essentially 
and  practically  the  same.  Fundamental  and 
original  discoveries  in  science  are  always  revolu- 
tionary in  their  effects,  as  are  also  fundamental 
perceptions  in  art. 

Now  medicine  is  an  art,  and  when  we  discuss 
"reform"  in  medicine  we  are  compelled  to  look  at 
our  subject  from  two  separate  and  distinct  points 
of  view — namely,  the  changes  that  have  come 
about  because  of  discoveries  in  pure  science — 
which  have  only  an  incidental  bearing  on  the 
practice  of  the  art  of  medicine — and  changes  that 
are  instituted  by  the  actual  practitioner  of  medi- 
cine himself  apart  from  the  discoveries  of  pure 
science. 


DR.    ANDREW    TAYLOR    STILL 

In  examining  the  history  of  medicine,  only  one 
practitioner  can  be  found  who  combined  the  two 
things  in  himself;  who  used  pure  science  as  his 
primary  method  and  directly  based  his  practice 
upon  it.  This  man  was  Andrew  Taylor  Still,  whose 
reform  of  medicine  was  revolutionary — therefore 
rapid — and  radical  to  the  very  roots  of  the  entire 
structure  itself. 

MEDICINE'S  SLOW  PAINFUL  REFORM 

Previously  to  Still,  medical  practitioners  had 
honestly  tried  to  reform  their  art,  and  suffered  the 
fate  of  the  reformer  in  consequence.  The  first  great 
reformer  in  what  we  call  modern  medicine  was 
Flaubert,  the  French  physician  of  the  latter  end  of 
the  18th  and  the  beginning  of  the  19th  Century. 
Medicine  in  his  day  was  a  procedure  of  purge, 
vomit,  blistering,  bleeding,  and  a  mixture  of 
materia  medica  drawn  from  nauseating  sub- 
stances of  all  kinds,  and  from  plants,  the  virtues 
of  which  were  based  upon  absolute  superstition — 
the  entire  art  in  that  day  being  but  slightly  more 
scientific  or  civilized  than  the  practice  of  the 
savage  tribe  with  its  medicine  man. 

Not  one  of  the  physiological  beliefs  of  the  physi- 
cians of  Flaubert's  time  survives  in  the  present 
day. 

Flaubert  failed  to  make  the  slightest  impression 
on  the  medical  craft  of  his  age.  He  made  no  appeal 
to  science.  There  was  no  science,  save  anatomy,  in 
that  time  with  a  direct  bearing  on  medical  prac- 
tice. Such  reform  as  he  attempted  was  nothing 
but  a  protest  against  every  one  of  the  agents  and 
every  method  of  treatment  then  in  use  as  thera- 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

peutic.  In  a  word,  Flaubert  sought  to  dismantle 
medicine  as  he  had  found  it.  Small  wonder  he 
failed  in  a  day  when  the  art  of  medicine  had  as 
little  true  understanding  of  the  real  body  as  could 
possibly  be,  if  we  neglect  the  imperfect  work  of 
the  anatomists  of  the  time,  of  Harvey  on  the  cir- 
culation and  of  Hunter  on  the  coagulation  of  the 
blood.  Flaubert  had  in  him  the  same  medical 
nihilism  as  Still  had  when  he  looked  around  and 
saw  that  "the  patients  we  were  treating  for  dis- 
ease were  dead".  But  in  the  hands  of  the  French 
physician  medical  nihilism  was  futile,  whereas  in 
the  hands  of  Still  it  led  to  the  only  general  therapy 
the  world  has  ever  known. 

HAHNEMANN,   THE   SECOND  REFORMER 

The  second  attempt  in  the  modem  reform  of 
medicine  by  practitioners  was  made  by  Hahne- 
mann, the  founder  of  the  homeopathic  school,  who, 
quite  unlike  Flaubert,  was  anything  but  a  medical 
nihilist.  Hahnemann's  great  principle  was  based 
on  the  two  main  beliefs,  first,  that  drugs  of  any 
kind  (or  any  other  kind  of  substance)  which, 
when  introduced  into  the  body,  would  produce 
symptoms  similar  to  those  of  the  disease  to  be 
cured,  would  effect  that  cure;  and  secondly,  that 
the  smaller  the  dose  of  the  drug  used  the  more 
vigorous  would  be  the  physiological  (curative) 
effect  of  it.  The  first  belief  became  a  kind  of 
motto  with  the  homeopaths — "Like  is  cured  by 
like." 

This  system  of  therapy  in  its  practical  applica- 
tion was  in  reality  the  abandonment  of  internal 
medicine  altogether,  for  in  the  high  dilutions  given 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

all  physiological  effect  vanished.  Hahnemann  suc- 
ceeded, without  wishing  to  do  so,  in  abolishing 
drugs,  although  he  believed  that  he  was  using 
drugs  in  stronger  form  than  ever.  A  glance  at 
the  materia  medica  of  the  homeopaths  is  sufficient 
to  produce  nausea  in  a  person  with  a  "delicate 
stomach,"  or  in  other  words  with  psychic  tendency 
to  sea  sickness. 

HELPED  BY  WEAKENING  THE  DOSE 

Hahnemann  not  only  swallowed  the  entire 
ancient  apothecary's  shop,  but  vastly  multiplied 
the  number  of  drugs  in  use  by  the  old  "regular" 
school.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  any  home- 
opath today  can  take  himself  seriously  in  the 
matter  of  "high  potency"  dilutions,  although 
human  credulity  can  stretch  ad  infinitum.  Cer- 
tainly in  these  days  of  scientific  pharmacology 
and  physiology,  of  pathology  and  immunology, 
one  would  imagine  that  "old  time  homeopathy" 
should  be  a  thoroughly  dead  cock  in  the  pit. 
Hahnemann's  reform,  however,  was  the  best 
"practical"  reform  up  to  its  own  time,  for  it  saved 
many  a  life  by  indirection.  The  medicines  could 
literally  do  no  harm,  a  fact  to  which  Osier  at- 
tributed homeopathic  "cures". 

ECLECTICISM  THE  THIRD  REFORM 

The  third  great  reform  practitioner  was  Ben- 
nett, the  Scotchman,  who  reacted  in  the  other 
direction.  Bennett  founded  what  he  called  the 
Eclectic  School,  that  is,  the  "choosing"  school. 
Any  remedy  whether  homeopathic  or  "allopathic" 
(a  name  ever  repudiated  by  the  ancient  school  of 

4 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

physicians)  that  was  proved  good  would  be  used 
by  the  eclectics.  But  Bennett  was  compelled  to 
put  a  new  shine  on  the  old  drugs,  so  he  decided  to 
extract  the  drug  in  a  fresh  rather  than  in  a  dry 
state,  making  the  drug  more  active,  as  he  believed 
— an  absurdity  on  its  face  to  those  who  know. 
But  Bennett  did  better  than  all  this.  He  was 
probably  the  first  reformer  who  by  his  opposition 
compelled  the  old  doctors  to  abandon  the  bleeding 
methods  in  general  use  in  his  time. 

Thus  far  we  see  that  every  useful  reform  in 
modern  medicine  was  in  the  direction  of  destroy- 
ing whatever  therapy  the  art  of  medicine  had 
inherited  from  the  ages,  rather  than  in  creating 
or  discovering  a  new  therapy  underpinned  by 
scientific  fact. 

A.  T.  STILL,  M.  D.,  BROUGHT  A  SCIENTIFIC 
THERAPY 

And  then,  on  the  heels  of  Bennett  came  Still, 
the  fourth  and  last  reformer  of  eminence  of  mod- 
em medical  art,  with  a  therapy  which  automatic- 
ally abolished  all  previous  practiced  therapy  by 
positive,  not  negative,  methods  of  treatment. 
Osteopathy  had  been  discovered. 

An  amazing  fact  in  the  history  of  medicine  is 
this,  that  from  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the 
valves  in  the  veins  by  Fabricio  ab  Aquapendente 
(which  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  by  Harvey)  down  to  1890  when  Behring, 
working  in  Koch's  Laboratory,  discovered  the  an- 
titoxins, not  one  experimental  result  of  real  sci- 
ence had  ever  been  successfully  applied  to  the  cure 
of  any  disease  in  man  or  in  animal !    What  an  in- 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

stupendous  fact !  From  Harvey  to  Behring  scien- 
tific investigation  with  its  infinite  printed  matter 
in  our  knowledge  of  the  conduct  of  living  matter, 
had  resulted  in  positively  nothing  in  the  way  of 
therapy !  Can  you  wonder  that  osteopathy,  when 
it  came,  was  a  success?  The  panorama  of  Europe's 
great  scientific  progress  in  all  the  biological  sci- 
ences accomplished  nothing  except  to  strike  down, 
one  after  another,  every  medical  agent,  eveiy 
therapeutic  fallacy  that  had  come  down  from  a 
past  black  with  superstition  and  death,  and  every 
one  that  had  sprung  up  since  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. Medicine,  it  was  seen,  was  only  a  hideous 
nightmare,  rescued  during  the  ages  from  the  dis- 
mal super stitution  of  the  jungle  and  the  primitive 
imagination  of  the  brute  man,  who  filled  the 
earth  and  the  air  with  the  deities  and  the  devils  of 
his  childlike  and  fearsome  brain. 

With  these  truths  clearly  before  us  we  can 
understand  the  work  done  by  Still,  and  can  com- 
prehend why  osteopathy  is! 

We  can  understand  how  this  therapy,  vital  from 
its  first  conception,  has  remained  vital  and  will 
continue  to  live  and  do  its  work  even  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  its  practitioners  and  its  researchers 
have  not  been  able  to  interpret  it  with  that  detail 
and  precision  that  is  scientifically  desirable. 

Still's  entire  therapy  rests  on  two  grand  gen- 
eralizations which,  like  all  revolutionary  discover- 
ies in  science,  were  at  first  totally  incomprehen- 
sible to  the  thought  of  the  age  upon  which  they 
dawned.  To  measure  their  revolutionary  char- 
acter we  must  remember  in  what  the  medical  be- 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

dictment  of  the  art  of  medicine  there  lies  in  that 
lief  of  that  day  consisted.  The  cure  of  disease  in 
that  time  was  limited  in  the  main  to  internal  med- 
icine. By  that  is  meant  the  putting  into  the  body 
—  into  the  blood  and  the  tissues  —  substances 
called  "medicines"  because  they  were  believed  to 
heal  the  body.  In  1870  disease  was  just  beginning 
to  be  studied.  Virchow  had  just  dawned  with  the 
discovery  of  the  modern  science  of  pathology. 
Until  Virchow's  work  nobody  had  the  slightest 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  disease  itself. 
Pathology  was  only  a  name.  The  best  scientists 
of  Europe  knew  as  little — far  less  indeed — of  dis- 
ease than  the  average  intelligent  layman  of  today 
who  reads  the  popular  magazines.  Neither  sci- 
entists nor  physicians  had  the  slightest  suspicion 
that  many  diseases  were  caused  by  the  growth  in 
the  tissues  or  the  blood,  or  in  both,  of  the  parasitic 
organisms  so  well  understood  today.  Tumors  were 
mere  "lumps"  growing  in  the  body,  some  of  which 
resembled  normal  tissues.  Skin  eruptions  of  every 
kind  were  believed  to  be  "impurities"  of  the  blood, 
and  the  people  swallowed  oceans  of  drugs  believed 
to  be  "blood  purifiers".  Patients  with  fevers  were 
generously  bled  even  as  late  as  1870.  At  that  time 
purging  and  vomiting  were  the  usual  practice. 
The  quantities  of  mercury  salts  sold  by  prescrip- 
tion and  without  prescription  would  stagger  the 
intelligence  of  today.  Quinine  was  handled  com- 
mercially by  the  ton  as  a  staple  to  the  people.  It 
was  swallowed  by  the  ton,  with  and  without  pre- 
scription, by  all  persons,  from  babes  to  centenar- 
ian, in  all  febrile  conditions.   The  wholesale  drug 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

trade  was  one  of  the  most  important  divisions  of 
civilized  human  activity.  Drug  stores  were  drug 
stores  then. 

A  little  scientific  pathology  would  have  remedied 
these  evils,  but  of  scientific  pathology  there  was 
none !  Virchow  was  only  a  dim  blaze  on  the 
horizon  of  things.  Let  us  repeat :  The  theory  back 
of  the  use  of  the  drug  was  that  some  kind,  or  any 
kind  of  substance,  taken  into  the  body  would  or 
could  work  a  cure.  In  the  very  midst  of  this  dis- 
mal credulity  came  A.  T.  Still,  M.  D.,  with  this 
message:  The  body  itself  contains  within  itself 
all  the  chemicals,  all  the  medicines,  necessary  for 
the  cure  of  disease. 

This  assertion  was,  as  you  can  see,  subversive 
of  every  belief  then  current  in  medicine,  but  only 
a  moment's  thought  is  necessary  to  understand 
how  true  it  was,  and  how  true  it  is  today,  and 
how  it  had  to  be  from  the  dawn  of  life  in  this  old 
world.  There  is  hardly  a  disease  that  is  invariably 
fatal.  No  disease  invariably  kills  all  the  individ- 
uals whom  it  attacks.  Indeed  the  vast  majority  of 
human  beings  and  animals  are  normally  in  the  act 
of  continuously  "curing  themselves"  of  disease  by 
which  they  are  being  continuously  "attacked". 
Were  this  not  true  all  races  of  animals  including 
man,  would  swiftly  be  destroyed  by  the  various 
biological  reactions  which  ignorance  had  named 
disease.  The  sciences  of  histology,  pathology,  im- 
munology and  pathological  chemistry,  in  the  past 
30  years,  have  told  us  what  disease  is,  and  in  this 
modern  definition  of  disease  we  find  that  it  is  only 
a  chemical  reaction  of  one  or  another  kind  among 

8 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

the  molecule-complexes,   or   atom-complexes,   of 
which  living  matter  consists. 

Thus  at  one  swift  stroke  of  his  clear  intellectual 
vision — A.  T.  Still  saw  the  biological  basis  upon 
which  modern  pathology,  in  its  histological,  im- 
munological and  chemical  aspects,  has  been  reared 
since  the  appearance  of  Virchow  and  Pasteur. 
Credit  for  this  original  and  far-reaching  per- 
ception— ^the  perception  of  a  mind  of  prime 
origination  and  imperial  power — will  be  given  to 
Still  in  due  time  by  the  future  historians  of  our 
sciences.  The  earlier  pupils  of  Still  could  see  the 
force  of  the  truth  he  taught  them,  because  they 
themselves  had  been  born  and  bred  in  the  midst 
of  the  medical  ideas  of  Still's  own  age.  And  these 
early  pupils  will  recall  how  bitterly  this  funda- 
mental truth  was  fought,  how  viciously  it  was 
ridiculed  by  the  medical  men  of  that  time  and 
later.  Today  this  fact  is  taught  in  every  university 
in  the  world  as  one  of  the  fundamental  bases  of  a 
superior  and  scientific  medical  education. 

TRUTH   USUALLY   OBVIOUS  AFTER  BEING 
PROCLAIMED 

One  of  the  great  arms  of  Still's  new  system  of 
therapy  was  therefore  the  principle  of  the  general 
immunity  of  the  blood  and  the  tissue  to  disease, 
and  so  self-evident  is  the  truth  of  this  principle 
that  the  wonder  is  it  was  not  seen  ages  before  the 
time  of  Still  and  his  pupils. 

Why  do  the  sick  recover? 

Answer,  because  the  body  is  self-healing. 

Why  is  the  body  self-healing? 

Answer,  because  only  those  organisms  that  had 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

in  them  the  necessary  chemical  and  structural  ele- 
ments for  resistance  to  so-called  disease  survived 
in  the  struggle  for  existence  during  the  long  and 
tragic  life-history  of  the  past.  Because  only  those 
organisms  that  had  these  necessary  elements  of 
resistance  and  recovery  from  disease,  could  live 
long  enough  to  reproduce  their  kind,  thus  passing 
down  to  the  new  generation  the  self-healing  and 
self-adjusting  mechanisms  that  safeguard  the 
maintenance  of  the  races  we  see  inhabiting  the 
earth  today. 

But  if  this  is  true,  why  is  there  any  disease  to- 
day in  men  and  animals?  Why  are  not  the  sur- 
viving races  entirely  free  from  disease? 

Answer,  because  for  the  survival  of  a  race  it 
was  essential  only  that  the  self-healing  mechan- 
isms would  enable  a  few  of  the  race  to  live  long 
enough  to  reproduce  its  kind.  Absolute  immunity 
to  all  diseases  in  all  organisms  was  not  a  condition 
of  survival. 

But  it  is  clear  that  if  immunity  in  some  or  in  a 
few  were  not  general  against  all  death-dealing  dis- 
eases, there  could  have  been  no  recovery  of  any 
organism  whatsoever,  and  hence  there  had  been  no 
survival,  whatsoever,  and  life  had  ceased  long  ago. 

ALL  LATE  RESEARCH  SUPPORTS  STILL'S 
THEORIES 

Still  clearly  perceived  the  necessity  of  general 
immunity  against  all  diseases,  including  the 
tumors,  but  he  did  not  derive  his  principle  from 
the  agreement  above  outlined,  because  in  his  day 
the  facts  of  development  as  discovered  by  Darwin 
and  Wallace  were  mainly  unknown  to  the  world 

10 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

at  large,  and  Jiot  understood  at  all  or  accepted  by 
the  great  body  of  scientific  men  who,  on  the  con- 
trary, ridiculed  the  law  of  natural  selection  as  an 
altogether  too  simple  thing  to  account  for  the 
facts  of  life.  If  today  that  law  is  universally 
taught  as  a  fact,  it  is  only  because  it  was  a  dis- 
covery of  prime  character.  And  if  Still's  great 
principle  has  been  proved  to  be  absolutely  true 
by  the  world's  researches  of  the  past  25  years, 
it  is  only  because  it  was  true  when  he  announced 
it,  and  hence  destined  to  be  proved  experimentally 
some  day,  soon  or  late.  In  short,  his  principle  had 
to  be  tested  by  the  fire  of  experimental  science  and 
experimental  criticism,  and  how  well  it  has  come 
through  untouched  in  any  phase  of  its  integrity  by 
these  tests,  it  has  been  my  privilege  and  my  hap- 
piness to  study  and  to  know. 

RESULTS  PROVE  OSTEOPATHY  SUCCESSFUL 
AS  A  THERAPY 

But  Sill's  principle  has  been  passing  through 
another  and  a  different  kind  of  criticism  and  test 
during  the  years  that  have  followed  its  announce- 
ment. I  mean  it  has  been  tested  by  the  practical 
experience  of  the  pupils  of  Still's  school  in  the 
actual  treatment  of  disease.  Osteopaths  love  to 
point  to  their  results,  past  and  present,  as  the 
living  proof  of  the  truth  of  Still's  theory  in  its 
twofold  form.  For  Still,  studying  anatomy,  had 
the  rare  power  of  perception  to  see  that  the  back- 
bone is  the  keystone  of  the  body,  and  that  this  im- 
perial palace  of  the  imperial  tissue  of  the  body — 
the  nerve — ^was  the  source  of  constant  disturbance 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  The  nerves  as  well 

11 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

as  all  the  other  tissues  of  the  body,  live  in  an  ocean 
of  blood  (or  lymph,  that  comes  from  the  blood) 
and  the  back-bone  through  its  innumerable  slips 
and  mal-adjustments  does  and  must  produce  in- 
numerable disturbances  of  circulation.  Hence  the 
second  arm  of  Still's  theory — ^the  osteopathic  les- 
ion. Accepting  this  theory  from  the  mind  of  Still, 
osteopaths  worked  whole  heartedly  with  it  as  their 
main  if  not  the  only  tool  of  healing,  with  what 
results  the  whole  world  knows. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  spirit  of  Andrew 
Taylor  Still  will  return  upon  many  osteopaths  who 
have  lost  faith  in  that  old  back-bone  lesion  as  the 
main  causative  factor  in  disease,  and  will  an- 
nihilate their  skepticism.  These  modem  skeptics, 
these  doubters  of  the  truth  of  Still's  back-bone 
lesion  theory  of  disease,  live  and  grow  prosperous 
on  that  theory  while  they  doubt  the  truth  of  it  in 
their  hearts. 

OSTEOPATHY  FOUNDED  UPON  BACKBONE  LESION 
ADJUSTMENT 

Let  such  doubters  and  skeptics  remember  that 
the  earlier  osteopaths  succeeded  in  winning  the 
faith  of  the  public  in  osteopathy  only  because  they 
preached  that  back-bone  lesion  day  and  night.  Let 
them  remember  that  if  it  were  not  for  that  im- 
perial generalization  of  A.  T.  Sill,  there  would  be 
no  osteopathy  today.  Let  them  remember  that 
every  patient  they  treat,  they  must  treat  by  the 
backbone  method,  or  lose  that  patient.  Let  them 
remember  that  every  new  patient  that  comes  to 
osteopathy  for  treatment  expects  that  treatment 
in  the  main.   (I  am  not  now  speaking  of  sprained 

12 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ankles,  broken  noses,  or  obvious  traumatisms  in 
parts  other  than  the  spine.  I  am  speaking  of  dis- 
ease in  general.)  What  treatment  have  you,  gen- 
tlemen, for  diseases  in  general  other  than  spinal 
treatment  based  on  Still's  lesion?  And  if  you  point 
to  the  glorious  record  of  osteopathy,  do  you  not 
point  to  the  osteopathic  spinal  bony-tissue  lesion 
as  the  cause  of  that  record  ?  And  if  you  win  your 
share  of  success  by  treating  the  spine  are  you  not 
at  least  an  unintelligent  operator  (if  not  a  self- 
stultifier)  when  you  repudiate  the  great  secondary 
principle  of  which  osteopathy  consists?  Are  you 
waiting  until  the  scientists  of  the  world  have  put 
their  experimental  approval  also  on  this  back-bone 
etiology?  Are  you  waiting  until,  through  the  dic- 
tum of  the  world's  men  of  science,  the  whole 
medical  profession  have  adopted  the  back-bone 
lesion  as  the  main  causative  factor  in  disease,  and 
have  taken  over  your  therapy  to  themselves — are 
you  waiting  for  this  until  you  become  real  osteo- 
paths, osteopaths  in  mind  as  well  as  in  fingers? 
If  you  are,  you  can  rest  assured  that  you  will  not 
have  long  to  wait.  We  are  living  in  an  age  of 
revolution,  and  Still's  medical  revolution  is  at  the 
world's  door  today. 

But  again,  science  itself  is  not  without  the  evi- 
dence that  the  spinal  lesion  is  the  main  factor  in 
the  causation  of  disease.  And  this  evidence  is 
quite  as  axiomatic  in  the  matter  of  Still's  spinal 
lesion  as  it  is  in  the  matter  of  Still's  law  of  gen- 
eral immunity.  Is  it  necessary  to  bring  forward 
scientific  evidence  that  spinal  etiology  is  true?  Is 
it  necessary  to  do  this  to  convince  the  osteopath? 

13 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

Any  osteopath  ?  If  so,  what  has  such  an  osteopath 
been  doing?  What  becomes  of  the  entire  osteo- 
pathic therapy?  I  will  tell  you  what  becomes  of 
it.  It  vanishes  like  the  dream  of  a  fool  into  that 
limbo  of  hideous  dreams  on  the  other  side  of  the 
moon!  The  world  would  be  well  rid  of  it,  and 
the  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  who 
have  been  cured  by  it  have  been  victims  of  a  moon- 
shine psychology. 

ZOOLOGY  WILL  SUPPORT  THE  LESION  THEORY 

Our  grand  old  man  in  his  life-time  was  dis- 
turbed by  no  such  fears,  and  science  is  as  able  to 
demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  second  great  prin- 
ciple he  discovered  as  it  has  been  to  demonstrate 
the  truth  of  the  first. 

The  osteopathic  lesion  as  a  general  factor  in  the 
etiology  of  disease  is  grounded  on  the  same  sci- 
entific basis  as  is  Still's  theory  of  general  im- 
munity to  disease,  and  is  destined  surely  to  be 
accepted,  in  the  end,  by  specialists  in  zoology  and 
hence  in  the  facts  of  natural  selection — the  great 
and  fundamental  law  of  life  and  of  matter  itself ; 
next  by  the  specialists  in  pathology,  a  science  that 
is  utterly  incomprehensible  unless  studied  and  in- 
terpreted in  the  light  of  that  great  law  of  natural 
selection ;  and  lastly  by  the  medical  profession  it- 
self, the  individual  members  of  which  are  trained 
by  these  specialists  in  the  fundamental  sciences 
pertaining  to  the  structures  and  the  work  of  the 
animal  body.  But  before  Still's  spinal  lesion  can 
be  accepted  by  the  medical  profession  as  the  main 
causative  factor  in  disease — a  cause  that  inter- 
feres with  the  so-called  "normal"  conduct  of  the 

14 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

body — ^that  spinal  lesion  in  all  its  significance  must 
be  studied  by  the  zoologists,  the  physiologists,  the 
physiological  chemists,  the  pharmacologists,  and 
the  pathologists  of  all  kinds,  and  its  importance  in 
the  life  history  of  races  mastered  and  understood. 

THERE  IS  NO  OTHER  GENERAL  THERAPY  TODAY! 

There  is  no  general  therapy  today,  there  never 
has  been  a  general  therapy,  excepting  osteopathy, 
based  on  these  two  great  generalizations  of  Andrew 
Taylor  Still — ^the  law  of  the  general  immunity  of 
organisms  to  so-called  disease,  and  the  law  of  the 
spinal  lesion  as  the  main  ultimate  etiological  fac- 
tor in  that  great  tribe  of  animals  called  the  verte- 
brates. 

But  you  may  say,  how  about  the  vast  hordes  of 
animals  that  are  not  vertebrates,  that  have  no 
backbones?  Are  they  to  be  without  a  therapy? 
Did  not  Still  think  of  them,  too,  in  his  grand 
scheme  of  healing? 

The  answer  is  simple.  He  did  not.  Still  had  in 
his  hands  only  a  man.  But  you  will  observe  that 
the  invertebrates,  plants  as  well  as  animals,  are  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  law  of  general  immunity 
which  Still  announced  for  the  human  species. 
A.  T.  Still  was  not  a  "materialistic"  thinker.  He 
believed,  as  was  natural  in  his  day,  in  a  kind  of 
"divine"  supervision  of  nature,  or  perhaps  in  the 
divinity  of  nature  itself — a  belief  or  conviction  to 
which  many  men  of  advanced  science  are  coming 
back  today,  and  so  forward  has  become  the  sci- 
entific mind  that  a  Thomson,  a  Ramsey,  a  Bec- 
querel  and  a  Still  could  meet  on  common  ground 
and  understand  one  another's  philosophical  con- 

16 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ceptions  of  nature  and  the  "soul"  of  nature.  The 
very  fact  that  Still  in  his  science  of  disease  and  its 
remedy  did  not  take  into  account  the  invertebrate 
world,  and  calculated  chiefly  if  not  wholly  the 
human  element,  lends  additional  value  to  his  dis- 
coveries. Science  has  demonstrated  his  law  of 
immunity  in  all  living  things,  as  well  as  in  man. 
If  what  he  held  of  man  be  true,  it  must  be  true  for 
all  other  forms  of  life.  Were  it  not  true  for  all 
other  forms,  it  could  not  be  true  for  man.  The 
very  test  of  its  truth  in  the  case  of  man  was  its 
universal  application  to  all  living  things.  And  in 
the  past  25  years  it  has  been  proved  universally 
true  by  the  laboratories  of  Europe.  His  theory 
concerning  the  spinal  lesion  as  the  main  primary 
causative  factor  in  disease  must  stand  a  similar 
test.  It  must  be  true  not  only  in  the  case  of  man, 
but  also  in  that  of  all  other  vertebrates.  And  he 
who  adequately  studies  comparative  pathology  in 
the  light  of  the  law  of  natural  selection  will  not  for 
one  minute  combat  the  theory  of  the  spinal  lesion 
in  that  etiological  sense  because  he  perceives  the 
necessity  of  its  truth.  To  these  osteopaths  who 
have  doubts  as  to  the  virtue  of  that  theory  as  a 
primary  conception  in  their  art,  I  would  recom- 
mend a  careful  study  of  the  literature  of  evolution 
and  comparative  embryology  and  can  guarantee 
them  that  their  convictions  will  then  square  with 
their  practice. 

This  original  theory  of  A.  T.  Still  has  been 
steadfastly  taught  to  the  young  osteopaths  that 
have  been  trained  in  the  American  School  of  Oste- 
opathy at  Kirksville.    It  has  been  instilled  in  their 

16 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

minds  at  that  school  from  the  begimiing.  It  has 
been  consistently  taught  them  during  the  years  I 
have  been  myself  a  teacher  in  that  school,  and 
when  it  ceases  to  be  taught  there  the  American 
School  of  Osteopathy  will  be  no  longer  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  essential  and  fundamental  thought 
of  its  founder.  No  school  that  does  not  make  that 
theory  the  main  spring  and  purpose  of  its  ex- 
istence can  be  called  osteopathic  without  false  pre- 
tense and  the  moral  and  scientific  obliquity  that 
false  pretense  of  any  kind  implies.  And  when 
osteopathy  lets  go  of  that  primary  teaching  it 
ceases  to  be. 


17 


II 


A.  T.  STILL  SCIENTIST  AND 
REFORMER 

The  key  to  the  work  of  Andrew  Taylor  Still  in 
his  capacity  as  a  scientific  reformer  was  his  un- 
usually and  powerfully  original  mind.  Like  all 
men  of  surpassing  genius  his  one  great  dominant 
characteristic  was  his  strong  and  active  original- 
ity. He  was  by  nature  entirely  unfitted  to  follow 
in  beaten  paths  those  who  had  gone  before  him. 
To  strike  out  in  new  directions,  to  carve  for  him- 
self with  his  own  hammer  and  chisel  the  block  of 
knowledge,  theory  and  practice,  was  for  him  a 
necessity;  and  few  of  the  many  theories  he  held 
were  borrowed  from  or  suggested  by  his  pre- 
decessors in  the  art  of  medicine.  He  appeared  on 
the  stage  of  medicine  when  that  art  was  just  on 
the  verge  of  the  searching  and  universal  scientific 
reforms  that  were  destined  soon  to  change  the  en- 
tire point  of  view  with  which  men,  up  to  that  time, 
had  been  accustomed  to  regard  their  own  bodies  in 
health  and  disease.  But  in  his  earlier  days  estab- 
lished medical  practice  was  almost  as  barbaric  and 
ancient  as  it  had  ever  been  since  the  age  of  the 
great  Greek  school  of  physicians  in  the  time  of 
Pericles,  five  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

When  Dr.  Still  was  a  young  man,  speculating  on 
the  cause  of  cholera,  many  of  the  great  scientific 
discoveries  and  epoch-making  inventions  in  the 

18 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

art  of  medicine  were  just  in  the  making,  or  were 
being  one  by  one  announced  to  an  astonished  and 
unbelieving  world.  That  was  the  day  when  Europe 
was  yet  ringing  with  the  freshly  announced  dis- 
coveries of  ^Theodor  Schwann,  who  was  the  first  to 
see  and  announce  the  fact  that  the  bodies  of  all 
animals  were  built  up  of  cells — ^the  so-called  "Cell 
Theory"  of  Schwann,  a  theory  which,  like  Ehr- 
lich's  theory  of  immunity,  soon  passed  into  the 
realm  of  undisputed  fact.  That  was  the  day  when 
the  new  pathology — ^the  cellular  pathology — was 
germinating  in  the  mind  of  the  great  Virchow, 
who  has  been  rightly  called  "the  father  of  path- 
ology" ;  when  the  powerful  Louis  Pasteur  was  do- 
ing his  best  thinking  in  the  remarkable  con- 
troversies concerning  life  and  its  origin  that  were 
then  raging  in  Europe,  with  Liebig  on  the  one  side 
and  Pasteur  on  the  other;  when  Helmholtz  was 
forging  in  his  mathematical  workshop  the  law  of 
the  conservation  of  energy,  and  reducing  to 
demonstrable  fact  the  conception  that  living 
bodies  were  chemical  and  physical  machines  in 
which  energy  was  transformed  but  never  lost; 
when  Johannes  Mueller,  the  father  of  modern 
physiology,  at  the  very  apex  of  his  career,  was 
about  to  pass  away ;  when  the  term  "irritability  of 
living  matter"  was  refreshingly  and  startlingly 
new;  when  the  chemists  of  Germany  and  France 
were  discovering  the  marvelous  facts  of  organic 
compounds,  and  searching  by  sjnnthesis  and  an- 
alysis into  the  secrets  of  living  nature;  when  the 
theory  of  "vital  force"  was  rapidly  disappearing 
out  of  the  minds  of  scientific  thinkers ;  when  Dar- 

19 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

win  was  forging  the  links  of  his  great  chain  of 
natural  selection;  when  von  Baer  was  first  per- 
ceiving the  amazing  facts  and  their  laws  of  the 
new-bom  science  of  embryology;  when  Haeckel 
was  observing  (for  the  first  time)  the  fact  that 
the  white  cells  of  the  blood  had  the  power  of  in- 
gesting small  particles  of  dead  matter — ^the  first 
perception  of  the  "phagocytosis' '  of  Metchnikoff ; 
when  Claude  Bernard,  the  French  physiologist, 
was  announcing  his  theory  that  all  substances 
that  could  enter  the  body  were  to  be  regarded  as 
either  foods  or  poisons;  when  pepsin  was  being 
discovered  by  Schwann,  and  the  structure  of  the 
kidney  by  Henle;  when,  in  one  word,  the  whole 
scientific  world  was  in  a  state  of  ferment,  in  which 
wholly  new  views  and  facts  about  living  matter 
were  being  upturned  and  established  every  day, 
and  the  old  foundations  on  which  medicine  had 
been  resting  for  ages  were  being  rapidly  and 
surely  dissolved  away.  It  was  in  such  an  age  that 
A.  T.  Still  appeared. 

ANTICIPATED  THE  BEST  SCIENTIFIC  THINKING 
OP  EUROPE 

When  Dr.  Still  was  beginning  to  see  clearly 
through  his  newly  formed  ideas  of  therapy  and  the 
causes  of  diseases  in  general,  the  science  of  mod- 
em pathology  was  in  its  infancy,  and  the  science 
of  bacteriology,  as  we  know  it  today,  was  as  yet 
virtually  undreamed  of ;  the  science  of  physiology 
was  only  just  beginning  to  show  its  first  and 
broadest  outlines;  and  the  sciences  of  histology 
and  embryology  were  only  beginning  to  be  under- 
stood in  their  more  startling  details;  and  we  can 

20 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

say  with  absolute  truth  that  Dr.  Still  was  the  only 
man  in  America  who  could  in  any  way  whatever 
be  regarded  as  being  abreast  with  the  spirit  of 
Europe ;  rather  let  us  say  he  was,  in  many  of  his 
primary  conceptions,  forty  years  ahead  of  Europe 
and  his  age,  a  fact  which  we  will  try  to  show  here, 
and  a  fact  which  will  be  amply  recognized  in  the 
history  of  medicine  as  it  will  be  written  in  the 
time  to  come. 

To  appreciate  Dr.  Still's  true  inherent  greatness, 
it  is  necessary  to  roll  back  the  years,  to  reverse 
history,  and  to  realize  to  ourselves  the  medical 
doctor  of  that  early  day,  especially  in  the  United 
States.  Dr.  Still's  earlier  life — say  until  he  was 
50  years  old — ^was  lived  in  a  time  when  medicine 
in  America  had  cut  itself  entirely  adrift  from  the 
medical  education  of  Europe.  In  the  earlier  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century  the  American  physician 
was  always  educated  in  Europe,  and  in  those  prim- 
itive times,  reaching  back  into  the  later  years  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  some  of  the  most  famous 
anatomists  of  Europe  paid  now  and  then  visits  to 
these  shores.  In  Philadelphia  there  still  stands,  or 
stood  until  recently,  an  anatomical  theatre,  where 
anatomists  exhibited  and  lectured  to  the  lay  public 
on  handsome  dissections  of  the  human  body,  as  had 
been  the  custom  in  Europe.  Those  were  the  times 
when  no  medical  schools  existed  in  America,  and 
all  American  physicians  were  educated  abroad. 
With  the  rise  of  the  first  medical  colleges  in 
America,  however,  this  custom  ceased,  and  toward 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  America  was  edu- 
cating her  own  doctors,  who,  in  the  beginning, 

21 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

were  almost  as  well  informed  as  their  European 
colleagues.  But  this  equality  of  education  soon 
passed  away,  and  from  then  onwards  medical  edu- 
cation in  America  was  distinctly  inferior  to  that 
of  Europe.  The  American  medical  colleges  passed 
into  the  hands  of  American  doctors  who  had  them- 
selves never  studied  in  Europe,  and  the  result  was 
that  hundreds  of  medical  schools  of  inferior  type 
sprang  up  in  this  country,  and  American  medicine 
was  now  upon  an  American  basis,  and  a  basis 
much  lower,  of  course,  than  that  of  the  great  uni- 
versities of  Europe,  where  the  newer  medical  sci- 
ences were  being  born  and  developed.  Hence  there 
was  in  America  scarcely  a  handful  of  physicians 
of  a  high  scientific  type.  There  were  no  discoveries 
made  in  America,  and  such  medicine  as  was  here 
was  of  the  distinctly  old  style,  crude  and  back- 
ward, and  loaded  with  many  of  the  superstitious 
beliefs  and  practices  that  had  marked  the  medicine 
of  Europe  before  the  days  of  Schwann  and  Pas- 
teur, of  von  Baer  and  Raymond,  of  Virchow  and 
Helmholtz,  of  Bowman  and  Henle,  of  Mueller  and 
Bernard  and  of  the  other  pure  scientists  whose 
work  did  so  much  to  place  medicine  on  a  pedestal 
higher  than  that  of  mere  experience  or  empiri- 
cism. American  doctors  were  notably  behind  the 
procession  of  Europe,  and  only  here  and  there 
could  be  found  a  doctor  with  any  appreciation  at 
all  of  the  medical  reforms  that  were  going  for- 
ward so  rapidly  in  the  universities  on  the  other 
side  of  the  sea.  To  this  rule,  surgery  was  some- 
thing of  an  exception.  American  surgery  was 
always  good,  but  surgery  is  a  thing  distinctly 

22 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

apart  from  medicine,  and  in  so  far  as  the  doctor 
was  a  surgeon  he  was  not  a  physician  at  all. 

Such  was  the  state  of  medicine  in  America  when 
Dr.  Still  appeared,  with  entirely  new  conceptions 
and  theories  concerning  diseases,  their  causes  and 
cures.  In  the  west  of  the  United  States,  far  re- 
mote from  the  slightest  influence  of  Europe,  in  the 
midst  of  the  black  ignorance  and  incompetence  of 
American  uneducated  doctors,  grew  up  this  sin- 
gular reformer,  who,  had  he  risen  in  Europe, 
would  have  exerted  the  most  powerful  world-wide 
influence  from  the  very  first. 

HIS  TWO  GREAT  DISCOVERIES,  LESIONS  AND 
IMMUNITY 

Like  all  great  original  thinkers,  Dr.  Still  had 
theories  for  almost  every  disease  and  function  of 
the  body,  and  many  of  these  theories  were  crude 
and  incompetent,  just  because  the  then  state  of 
the  sciences  he  dealt  with  was  still  crude  and  in- 
competent. In  fact,  when  Dr.  Still  worked  out 
many  of  his  theories  of  disease,  the  real  causes  of 
these  diseases  were  wholly  unknown  and  seem- 
ingly incomprehensible.  But  of  the  various  theo- 
ries which,  like  sparks  from  a  grinding  wheel,  flew 
off  from  his  original  and  ever-active  mind,  at  least 
two  were  of  prime  order  and  absolutely  true  and 
good.  These  were  first,  his  theory  of  the  mechani- 
cal (anatomical)  lesion,  and  secondly,  his  theory 
of  the  chemical  immunity  of  the  body,  both  of 
which  he  put  forth  as  the  cause  of  disease,  and 
both  of  which  have  absolutely  stood  the  test  of 
time  and  subsequent  scientific  criticism  and  ex- 
periment.   The  scientific  historian  of  the  future, 

23 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

who  will  write  at  a  time  when  all  prejudices  of 
professional  jealousy  and  hate  will  have  been  lost 
in  the  great  historical  perspective,  will  probably 
regard  Dr.  Still's  greatest  contribution  to  science 
as  being  his  theory  of  immunity  rather  than  his 
wonderful  perception  of  the  mechanical  origin  of 
so-called  disease.  For  it  is  a  fact  that  while  the 
great  conception  of  the  osteopathic  lesion  was  di- 
rectly responsible  for  the  grand  dramatic  debut  of 
osteopathy  and  its  seemingly  miraculous  cures, 
more  recent  knowledge  and  understanding  of 
osteopathic  treatment  and  its  results  have  called 
attention  in  a  striking  and  startling  way  to  Dr. 
Still's  other  grand  and  primary  conception  of  the 
body's  natural  immunity ;  a  conception  primary  in 
every  sense  of  that  word ;  for  it  is  upon  this  great 
fact  of  nature  that  the  osteopathic  lesion,  with  all 
it  means  to  the  osteopath  and  the  diseases  he 
works  in,  hangs.  Dr.  Still  in  his  own  mind  and  his 
own  writings  placed  this  great  natural  immunity 
of  the  body  first  in  order,  and  then  followed  it  up 
with  the  correction  of  the  lesion,  by  which  pro- 
cedure the  defensive  and  hence  curative  mechan- 
ism of  the  body  was  given  free  play. 

WAS  FIRST  TO  ANNOUNCE  THE  THEORY 
OF  IMMUNITY 

In  justice  to  the  original  mind  of  this  American 
genius,  it  should  be  said  that  Dr.  Still  was  the 
first  man  to  perceive  the  truth  that  nature  has  de- 
veloped in  the  animal  body  its  own  defences 
against  diseases.  And  with  this  thought  in  mind 
we  can  for  the  first  time  see  the  power  and  real 

24 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

meaning  in  his  well  worn  axiom,  "Find  it,  fix  it, 
and  leave  it  alone !" 

The  three  last  words  contain  the  heart  of  the 
axiom — leave  it  alone ;  because  by  leaving  it  alone. 
Dr.  Still  most  certainly  did  not  mean  that  the  prac- 
titioner should  never  touch  his  patient  again! 
What  he  did  mean  was  that  after  the  lesion  has 
been  corrected  nature  itself  will  do  all  the  neces- 
sary subsequent  work — ^that  is,  it  is  not  necessary 
(nay,  it  is  hurtful)  to  thrust  into  the  body  the 
drugs  that,  in  his  day,  were  believed  by  all  doctors 
of  all  schools  to  have  some  effect  against  the  dis- 
ease at  work  in  the  body.  "Leave  it  alone"  is 
nothing  but  a  vigorous  protest  against  drug  treat- 
ment which  in  Dr.  Still's  time  was  the  only  treat- 
ment for  any  and  all  diseases  which  the  surgeons' 
knife  could  not  remove. 

OSTEOPATHY  AVAILABLE  IN  THE  INFECTIOUS 
DISEASES 

While  it  is  perfectly  true,  and  rightly  so,  that 
the  osteopath  in  the  past  has  seemed  to  rest  his  en- 
tire dependence  upon  the  anatomical  lesion  (be- 
cause it  was  in  the  correction  of  these  lesions  that 
osteopathy  in  the  beginning  worked  its  most  amaz- 
ing results),  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  by  persis- 
tent effort  the  osteopath  has  swept  under  his  con- 
trol dieases  which  the  earlier  osteopaths  were  dis- 
posed to  neglect  as  being,  in  some  way  or  other, 
outside  the  domain  of  the  anatomical  lesion.  Today 
in  the  great  center  and  mother  institution  of  osteo- 
pathy at  Kirksville,  a  city  made  world  renowned 
by  Dr.  Still  and  the  system  of  therapy  he  founded, 
there  are  young  osteopaths,  yet  in  the  student 

25 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

stage  of  their  career,  who,  with  entire  confidence 
in  their  own  power  and  the  science  under  it,  treat 
all  kinds  of  infectious  diseases  with  a  courage,  or 
rather  with  an  entire  want  of  fear,  that  reminds 
one  of  the  primitive   Christians. 

EUROPEAN  RESEARCH  HAS  CONFIRMED  STILL'S 
TEACHINGS 

All  these  facts  are  individual  little  monuments 
to  the  genius  of  A.  T.  Still,  because  they  show  how 
well  he  anticipated  the  discoveries  of  the  world's 
most  enlightened  and  capable  scientists  of  later 
years;  and  if  Europe,  with  the  genius  of  its  lab- 
oratories, has  given  to  the  world  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  causes,  the  prevention,  and  the 
rational  theory  of  the  cure  of  diseases,  what  it 
has  done  is  only  the  scientific  demonstration  of  the 
theory  of  disease  (the  natural  defences  of  the 
body)  which  was  first  perceived  and  announced  as 
his  own  theory  of  disease  forty  years  ago  by 
Andrew  Taylor  Still.  Therefore,  we  say  it  is  only 
just  to  the  genius  of  the  man  to  give  to  him  the 
credit  for  having  been  the  first  to  conceive  this 
theory  of  immunity  to  disease,  which,  during  the 
past  twenty-five  years,  has  grown  with  such  rap- 
idity and  strength  as  to  fill  the  whole  world  with 
its  noise  and  to  change  radically  all  views  of  dis- 
eases and  the  possibility  of  their  cure. 

An  extraordinarily  high  degree  of  credit  should 
be  given  him  for  this  remarkable  and  original  per- 
ception for  the  very  reason  that  it  came  to  him  at 
a  time  when  the  facts  of  immunity  were  not  at  all 
understood,  nor  in  any  way  seen  or  believed  to  be 
concerned  with  disease  in  general.    At  that  time, 

26 


FOUNDER    OF     OSTEOPATHY 

as  well  as  in  all  previous  times,  the  bare  fact  of 
immunity,  natural  and  acquired,  was  and  had  been 
for  ages  familiar  to  men.  It  was  a  matter  of  com- 
mon knowledge  and  experience  that  certain  dis- 
eases in  men  were  followed  by  immunity  to  these 
certain  special  diseases.  It  was  a  fact  of  common 
knowledge  and  experience,  for  example,  that  an 
attack  of  smallpox  was  followed  by  immunity  to 
smallpox  in  the  future;  that  men  perhaps  never 
had  a  second  attack  of  the  disease;  that  persons 
having  passed  through  one  attack  of  the  disease 
were  universally  regarded  as  being  safe  against  a 
second  attack.  Scarlet  fever,  mumps,  yellow  fever, 
measles,  and  other  diseases,  called  infectious  or 
contagious,  were  similar  to  smallpox  in  their 
power  of  conferring  immunity  against  the  disease. 
But  this  power  of  conferring  immunity  was 
thought  to  be  limited  to  those  diseases  alone  in 
which  the  immunity  conferred  was  lasting 
throughout  the  life  of  the  individual.  Other  dis- 
eases, to  a  second  or  third  or  several  attacks  of 
which  the  body  was  susceptible,  were  not  classified 
as  diseases  that  immunized  the  individual.  But 
it  is  now  known  that  all  infectious  diseases  do 
produce  an  immunity,  in  all  ways  similar  to  that 
produced  by  smallpox  except  for  the  length  of 
time  during  which  the  immunity  lasts. 

If,  let  us  say,  pneumonia  produces  an  immunity 
which  safeguards  the  individual  as  efficiently  as 
smallpox  does,  only  that  the  immunity  wears  out, 
say  in  a  year  or  more,  you  have  a  similar  power  to 
that  in  smallpox,  only  the  effects  do  not  last  a  life 
time.    The  same  is  true  of  typhoid  fever,  and  in- 

27 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STIfLL 

deed  of  all  infectious  diseases.  This  will  be  seen 
to  be  necessarily  true  when  it  is  remembered  that 
if  an  immunity,  more  or  less  lasting,  were  not  pro- 
duced by  the  disease,  the  disease  would  never  dis- 
appear, the  patient  never  "get  well".  So  that  it 
would  appear  that  all  infections  act  in  the  body 
in  a  way  similar  to  smallpox  but  with  certain 
variations  in  the  length  of  time  during  which  the 
reaction,  or  the  "safety",  lasts.  This  would  bring 
all  infection  under  the  same  natural  law ;  but  the 
proof  of  these  facts  means  only  one  thing,  and 
that  is  this,  that  an  individual,  not  immune  to  a 
disease  in  the  first  place,  but  who  becomes  immune 
after  the  disease  has  been  acquired  and  "runs  its 
course"  with  recovery,  must  have  in  his  body  pre- 
viously to  the  attack  some  kind  of  mechanism 
which  the  presence  of  the  disease  excites  to  the 
formation  of  substances  which  now  are  in  suffi- 
cient quantity  to  prevent,  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time,  a  second  attack  of  the  disease.  This  in  turn 
must  mean  only  that  the  body  is  equipped  by 
nature  with  its  own  cure  for  disease  and  with  the 
power  of  preventing  further  attacks  of  the  same 
disease — for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  after  the 
first  attack. 

THE  BLOOD  CARRIES  THE  BODY'S  HEALING 

Dr.  still  urged  virtually  this  view  of  disease, 
and  held  that  the  curative  and  protecting  thing 
was  to  be  found  in  the  blood  and  hence  in  the  tis- 
sues, and  in  this  theory,  simple  as  it  appears  today 
to  us  who  are  familiar  with  the  researches  of 
Europe  during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  is  to  be 

28 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

found  the  very  first  perception  of  the  great  law  of 
immunity  to  disease  of  almost  every  kind,  includ- 
ing even  the  tumors.  Dr.  Still,  in  effect,  urged  the 
theory  that  all  diseases  could  be  scientifically 
classified  with  smallpox,  and  similar  immunizing 
diseases,  and  that  hence  all  diseases  in  their  cause 
and  cure  could  be  referred  back  to  the  blood.  His 
axiom  now  follows:  Remove  the  cause  which 
stops  or  clogs  the  blood  flow,  or  which  blocks  the 
nerve  which  controls  the  blood  flow,  and  the  blood 
itself  will  work  the  cure.  "The  rule  of  the  artery 
is  supreme." 

HIS  IMMUNITY  GENERALIZATION  REQUIRED  YEARS 
TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD 

Now  when  Dr.  Still  began  to  treat  diseases  on 
this  principle  the  entire  principle  itself  was  not 
only  amazing  to  the  then  current  ideas  of  disease, 
but  was  also  incomprehensible  even  to  the  best 
thought  of  his  time.  To  bring  virtually  all  diseases 
under  one  main  principle  was,  to  the  science  of 
that  day,  a  complete  absurdity.  To  say  that  small- 
pox, tuberculosis,  pneumonia,  whooping  cough, 
pimples  on  the  face,  leprosy,  syphilis,  typhoid 
fever,  diarrhoea,  a  "cold"  in  the  head  and  cancer 
were  one  and  all  referable  to  the  same  basic  law 
(the  state  of  the  blood)  and  perhaps  curable  by 
the  same  method,  were  the  whole  problem  in  all  its 
phases  mastered,  was  not  only  "revolutionary" 
but  was  a  wildly  impossible  and  clearly  absurd 
theory  of  disease  in  its  causes  and  its  cure.  But 
let  us  ask,  in  the  light  of  the  scientific  progress  of 
the  past  quarter  of  a  century  just  how  absurd  and 
impossible  it  really  was? 

29 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

Since  that  time  the  clear  sun  of  science  has  risen 
higher  and  higher  every  day  to  dissipate  the  dark- 
ness that  shrouded  disease  up  to  the  day  of  Still 
and  his  discovery.  Rather  say,  sun  after  sun  of 
science  has  risen  in  succession  to  that  first  illum- 
inating discovery  of  Dr.  Still.  Metchnikoff  rose  to 
show  how  the  white  cells  of  the  blood  ingest  dis- 
ease germs,  ridding  the  body  of  these  destructive 
agents,  and  indeed  normally  preventing  the  onset 
of  infections ;  Buchner,  the  German  bacteriologist, 
rose,  showing  how  ferments  could  be  separated 
from  the  organisms  that  made  them;  Uhlenhut 
rose,  to  show  through  his  pupil  Nuttall,  how  dis- 
ease germs,  multiplying  in  the  animal  body,  pro- 
duced in  the  blood  of  the  animal  a  substance  that 
could  kill  the  germs  that  produced  it ;  Pf eiff er,  an- 
other German,  rose  to  show  how  the  serum  of  an 
animal  inocculated  with  typhoid  or  cholera  germs 
would  dissolve  typhoid  or  cholera  germs,  but  no 
other ;  Behring,  the  pupil  of  the  great  Koch,  rose 
to  show  how  the  poisons  of  bacteria  could  produce 
in  the  body  of  the  animal  into  which  they  were  in- 
jected a  counter  substance  which  could  neutralize 
and  render  harmless  the  toxins  themselves,  calling 
them  anti-toxins ;  Bordet,  the  Frenchman,  rose  to 
show  how  these  laws  applied  to  the  blood  cells  of 
other  animals  when  injected  into  an  experimental 
animal ;  Ehrlich  rose,  to  show  why  all  these  things 
had  to  be  true  and  how  the  mechanism  of  the  body 
did  its  work  in  the  cure  and  prevention  of  disease ; 
and  finally  Abderhalden,  the  youngest  of  this  ar- 
ray of  scientists,  rose  to  show  how  the  tumors 
were  to  be  classified  in  their  general  laws  with  the 


FOUNDER    OF     OSTEOPATHY 

disease  germs,  so  called,  the  bacteria  of  the  bac- 
teriologists. Limb  after  limb  of  the  great  problem 
has  been  brought  under  control  and  more  or  less 
understood,  and  today  not  to  subscribe  in  full  to 
the  principle  first  laid  down  by  Andrew  Taylor 
Still  forty  years  ago,  is  to  confess  one's  self  as 
having  no  knowledge  or  understanding  at  all  of 
the  progress  made  by  biological  science  within  the 
past  twenty-five  years,  or  (we  can  say  to  the  un- 
informed critics  of  osteopathy)  to  confess  one's 
self  a  person  with  no  knowledge  or  understanding 
of  Andrew  Taylor  Still  and  his  theory. 

With  these  facts  in  mind  we  can  see  A.  T.  Still 
as  the  original  discoverer  of  one  of  the  great 
natural  laws  of  living  matter,  comparable  in  all 
ways  with  other  great  generalizations,  the  first 
perceptions  of  which  were  necessarily  incomplete 
so  far  as  actual  demonstration  by  experiment  or 
mathematical  calculation  is  concerned.  This  the- 
ory of  Still  is  deserving  of  being  ranked,  within 
its  own  special  compass,  beside  the  theory  of  the 
chemical  and  physical  basis  of  life — a  theory  that 
grew  in  many  minds  rather  than  in  one.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  corollary  of  Darwin's  law  of  natural 
selection,  for  it  is  clear  that  if  all  living  organisms 
had  not  been  preserved  through  their  ancestral 
immunity  to  disease — ^through  this  self -protecting 
mechanism  that  saved  them  from  disaster  and 
death  by  disease — they  had  never  survived  at  all, 
the  very  fact  of  their  survival  being  of  itself  in- 
disputable evidence  of  the  presence  in  their  bodies 
of  a  defensive  and  curative  force — the  old  vis 
medicatrix  naturae  (the  healing  force  of  nature) 

31 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

of  the  ancient  doctors  that  was  ever  active  and 
automatically  self-adjusting  under  favorable  con- 
ditions. To  re-establish  these  favorable  con- 
ditions, when  accident  had  removed  them,  was  the 
method  proposed  by  Still  for  the  cure  of  disease; 
a  method  absolutely  original  with  himself,  and 
grounded  on  the  most  conspicuous  fact  of  human 
consciousness  —  the  tendency  of  some  forms  of 
living  matter  to  antagonize  and  destroy  certain 
other  forms  of  living  matter,  and  thus  to  survive 
in  the  struggle  for  life — "disease"  being  mainly  a 
struggle  for  life  among  living  forms,  as  for  ex- 
ample, destructive  "germs"  or  tumor  cells,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  normal  cells  of  the  body  on  the 
other. 

GREAT  THINKERS  LAUNCH  MANY  IDEAS  THAT 
ARE  FOUND  WRONG 

We  have  said  that  Still  originated  many  various 
physiology  which  have  since  been  found  to  be  in- 
theories  concerning  normal  and  pathological 
adequate  or  faulty.  But  in  this  respect  he  re- 
sembled all  other  great  geniuses  in  biology  and 
other  sciences.  The  earlier  investigators  in  all 
sciences  were  quite  outside  the  truth  in  many,  and 
indeed  in  most,  of  their  scientific  speculations,  and 
necessarily  so.  Many  osteopaths,  while  revering 
the  founder  of  the  new  system  of  healing,  have 
seemed  to  feel,  because  Still  was  right  in  his  two 
grand  principles  of  disease  and  its  therapy,  that 
therefore  he  should  not  have  been  wrong  in  any- 
thing he  said  about  the  body  and  its  work,  in 
health  and  disease.  But  such  osteopaths  are  short- 
sighted and  unwise.    If  Dr.  Still  had  been  right  in 

32 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

all  his  theories  he  would  not  have  been  human,  not 
worthy  of  human  admiration.  His  errors,  indeed, 
and  he  made  many,  are  really  a  greater  glory  to 
his  genius  than  his  two  great  and  true  discoveries. 
Dr.  Still's  very  errors  would  have  been  accounted 
discoveries  if  made  by  a  common  man.  He  lived 
and  worked  out  his  theories  forty-five  years  ago, 
and  earlier.  He  had  thought  out  a  scientific  theory 
to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  cholera,  for  ex- 
ample, when  other  men  accounted  for  them  by  the 
belief  that  this  disease  was  a  visitation  of  Prov- 
idence on  the  sins  of  men.  His  theory  of  cholera 
in  the  light  of  subsequent  discoveries  is  seen  to  be 
untrue,  of  course,  but  to  originate  any  kind  of  a 
scientific  theory  at  all  of  this  disease  in  that  day 
was  the  mark  of  an  original,  scientific  and  pro- 
found thinker.  His  theory  of  "blood  seed",  which 
few  of  his  interpreters  have  been  able  to  under- 
stand, is  an  identical  theory  with  that  of  the  con- 
temporaries of  Theodor  Schwann  to  account  for 
the  growth  of  cells  in  the  body.  Dr.  Still  himself 
was  a  contemporary  of  Schwann,  and  it  is  small 
wonder  that  the  doctors  of  that  day  in  America 
could  not  understand  his  meaning  when  he  spoke 
of  "blood  seed".  The  American  doctors  in  that 
day  knew  nothing  of  the  cell  theory  of  Schwann, 
or  next  to  nothing. 

Now  there  was  in  that  day  current  in  the  higher 
scientific  circles  of  Europe  a  theory  of  "blood 
seed",  but  it  was  not  called  by  that  term.  It  was 
known  as  the  "blastema  theory".  There  are  prob- 
ably not  many  doctors  in  America  today  who  could 
tell  us  what  the  "blastema  theory"  was.    And  why 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

should  they,  when  this  theory,  like  Still's  "blood 
seed"  theory,  was  wiped  out  by  the  discovery  made 
later  that  all  cells  originate  from  one  cell  (the 
ovum),  and  that  no  cell  arises  except  as  the  con- 
tinuous splitting — by  cell  division — of  previously 
existing  cells?  But  the  "blastema  theory"  held 
that  there  were  in  the  blood  countless  millions  ot 
invisible  particles  floating  in  a  special  fluid,  the 
"blastema",  which  had  the  power  of  growing  large 
and  developing  into  cells.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  are  in  nature  certain  unicellular  animals, 
such  as  the  organisms  that  cause  smallpox,  that  do 
actually  grow  from  invisible  units  so  small  that 
they  can  pass  through  the  pores  of  a  Berkfeld 
filter.  But  the  cells  of  the  animal  body  do  not  grow 
in  just  that  way,  although  the  original  units  or 
cell  development  actually  exist  in  the  egg  cell  and 
its  descendants  in  this  inconceivably  minute  form, 
and  it  was  upon  this  conception  that  the  German 
biologist  Weissman  founded  his  wonderful  theory 
of  inheritance  with  its  "idants",  "ids",  "determi- 
nants" and  "biophors".  Now  Still,  and  the  other 
contemporaries  of  Schwann,  held  that  these 
minute  units  (afterwards  called  "gemmules"  by 
Darwin,  "granules"  by  Altmann  and  "micellae" 
and  "plastidules"  by  Haeckel  and  others),  actually 
floated  in  the  blood  and  furnished  the  origin  of  the 
cells  of  the  body.  In  that  much,  of  course,  Still 
and  the  others  were  in  error,  but  it  is  at  least  an 
indication  of  the  powerfully  original  mind  of  Still 
that  he  had  hit  upon  a  theory  going  to  the  very 
origin  of  the  cell,  similar  in  all  respects  to  that  of 
the  best  thinkers  of  Europe  of  his  day.    And  we 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

need  have  no  doubt  at  all  that  Still,  in  common 
with  his  American  colleagues,  had  no  intimate  ac- 
quaintance at  all  with  the  finer-spun  biological 
theories  of  the  Europe  of  that  day. 

Again  we  must  remember  that  Still  was  a  doctor 
of  the  old  school  and  that  he  did  not  altogether  rid 
himself,  as  his  followers  have  done,  of  all  the  old 
machinery  of  the  older  therapy.  We  must  do  him 
the  justice,  however,  of  being  consistent  in  a 
thorough  way  in  his  rejection  of  internal  drug 
medication.  Indeed  he  held  that  locomotor  ataxia 
was  caused  by  the  mercury  administered  to  the 
syphlitic  rather  than  by  the  disease;  but  this  is 
now  known  not  to  be  true,  although  in  his  day  that 
speculation  of  his  was  quite  as  justifiable  as  any 
other  on  the  cause  of  tabes  dorsalis. 

VAGARIES  OF  OTHER  GREAT  SCIENTIFIC 
REFORMERS 

It  is  interesting  to  observe,  however,  that  of  all 
the  old  drastic  methods  of  therapy  which  were  in 
full  swing  in  his  own  day,  only  one  has  retained  its 
vitality,  and  that  is  the  principle  of  so-called 
"counter-irritants".  Blisters  and  strong  irritating 
plasters  are  potent  in  certain  pains  and  other 
symptoms,  although  the  reason  why  is  perfectly 
obscure.  And  this  principle  of  counter  irritants 
was  perhaps  the  one  prominent  therapeutic 
method  of  the  old  time  that  Still  did  not  abandon. 
He  believed,  in  a  limited  way,  in  counter  irritants 
and  used  them,  sometimes  with  excellent  results, 
although  the  results  were  not  always  as  sure  as 
the  cures  he  wrought  when  he  stuck  to  his  own 
discovery,  osteopathy.   His  scientific   errors   and 


PR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

vagaries,  however,  were  remarkably  few  when 
compared  with  the  number  of  similar  errors  and 
vagaries  of  other  great  scientific  reformers  of  his 
own  day.  For  example,  if  we  look  into  the  life 
work  of  the  great  Johannes  Mueller,  founder  of 
modem  physiology,  and  professor  of  anatomy  and 
physiology  in  the  University  of  Berlin  (while 
Still  was  developing  his  earliest  dissatisfactions 
with  medical  unwisdom)  we  will  find  that  perhaps 
not  one  of  Mueller's  wonderful  "discoveries" — 
accepted  in  that  day  as  true — has  stood  the  test  of 
subsequent  investigation.  Mueller  wrote  whole 
textbooks  of  physiology  (previously  to  1850) 
which  consisted  wholly  of  experiments  and  theor- 
ies all  his  own.  And  yet  all  that  remains  of  the 
work  of  this  great  genius  of  science  is  the  one 
theory  of  the  "specific  energy  of  nerves".  But  do 
we  say  therefore  that  Johannes  Mueller  is  un- 
worthy the  monuments  the  world  has  raised  to 
him  and  of  the  honor  we  do  him  proudly  today? 
No,  indeed.  For  Mueller's  scientific  errors  and 
"vagaries"  form  the  fundamental  rock  and  corner- 
stone of  modem  physiological  science,  just  as  the 
most  striking  of  Still's  errors  form  the  fund- 
ament of  modem  drugless  therapy,  with  this  dif- 
ference that  Still's  theory  of  immunity  has  been 
absolutely  demonstrated  by  every  laboratory  in 
Europe,  and  his  practical  application  of  that 
theory  in  osteopathy,  the  American  science  of 
mechano-therapy,  has  given  to  a  suffering  human- 
ity a  balm  unparalleled  and  unapproached  in  the 
history  of  the  human  race. 


W 


Ill 


DOCTOR  STILL  AS  A  THERAPEUTIST 

In  the  first  part  of  this,  our  study  of  Dr.  A.  T. 
Still,  we  looked  at  him  in  his  capacity  as  one  of 
the  great  original  thinkers  and  reformers  in  the 
sciences  called  medical.  We  showed  how  he  was 
the  first  to  state  outright,  in  unequivocal  and  clear 
terms,  the  great  theory  of  immunity,  or  rather 
how  A.  T.  Still  was  the  first  to  perceive  the  fact 
that  immunity  applied  not  only  to  the  diseases 
which,  up  to  his  time,  were  regarded  as  immuniz- 
ing diseases,  but  urged  in  clear  terms  the  univer- 
sality of  this  great  modern  biological  principle  in 
diseases  of  every  kind.  We  showed  that  to  him 
belongs  the  credit  of  having  brought  all  diseases 
under  one  great  law — ^that  of  body  resistence; 
how,  theoretically,  the  blood  and  the  tissues  them- 
selves contained  the  cure  for  diseases  of  virtually 
every  kind.  We  called  attention  to  his  wonderful 
perception  of  the  fact  that  by  certain  mechanical 
manipulations  of  the  body  structures,  especially 
those  of  the  spine,  this  natural  resistence  to  dis- 
ease could  be  released  from  certain  obscure  inter- 
ferences, or  increased  in  quantity  in  certain  other 
circumstances,  obscure  enough  in  themselves. 
Thus  rose  in  his  perception  the  osteopathic  lesion, 
which,  he  claimed,  was  probably  at  the  source  of 
most,  if  not  all,  disturbances  of  the  body  called 
pathological.  And  we  further  called  attention  to 
his  logical  abandonment  of  virtually  all  the  older 

37 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

methods  of  medication  which,  in  his  day,  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  drugs,  foreign  to  the  substances 
of  which  the  body  consists,  all  of  which  he  re- 
garded as  poisons  or  hurts  to  the  natural  mechan- 
ism of  the  body  itself.  We  have  now  to  study  Dr. 
Still  in  the  practical  application  of  these  prin- 
ciples, or,  in  other  words,  to  study  the  master  at 
work  with  the  theoretical  tools  he  invented  to 
realize  his  theories  in  fact.  And  in  this  study  we 
shall  find  that  Dr.  Still  was  an  absolute  osteopath, 
consistent  in  all  ways  with  his  main  theoretical 
findings. 

PURE  OSTEOPATHY  MAKES  NO  APOLOGY 
FOR  CONSISTENCY 

The  present  writer  appreciates  the  difficulties 
that  would  confront  any  man  in  a  study  of  this 
kind,  for  it  is  hard  to  separate  Dr.  Still's  own 
theories  and  position  from  those  of  many  of  his 
followers,  who  have  developed  the  art  that  he 
founded,  and  have  made  applications  of  that  art 
in  their  own  way,  with  their  own  modifications. 
We  believe,  however,  that  few  osteopaths,  who 
have  remained  osteopathic,  and  have  not  become 
infected  with  certain  delusions  that  control  the 
minds  of  many  unscientific  medical  doctors,  will 
disagree  with  our  statements  of  fact.  A  fair  re- 
view of  Dr.  Still's  work  will  deal  only  with  his 
main  generalizations,  neglecting  his  adventitious 
speculations  on  certain  phases  of  physiology  which 
later  investigation  has  diverted  widely  from  the 
thought  that  was  current  in  his  own  day.  To  re- 
main a  pure  osteopath  was  difficult  even  for  the 
founder  himself,  but  that  does  not   justify   the 

38 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

modem  osteopath  for  departing  one  jot  from  the 
main  pure  osteopathic  principles  for  which  A.  T. 
Still  stood  and  which  are  entirely  and  altogether 
responsible  for  the  magnificent  success  that  is  the 
fruit  of  osteopathy  today.  It  is  probable  that  had 
Dr.  Still  remained  in  active  life  long  enough  to 
have  become  acquainted  with  the  results  of  recent 
scientific  research,  he  had  needed  no  interpreter 
such  as  the  present  writer,  but  would  have  been 
able  to  vindicate  his  own  early  theory  and  prac- 
tice with  his  own  pen,  as  he  was  fully  able  to  do. 
And  had  he  so  lived  and  wrought  he  would  have 
continued  the  purest  osteopath  in  the  profession 
he  fathered. 

MANIPULATION  IS  ITS  METHOD  OF  APPLICATION 

You  will  ask,  what  do  you  mean  by  a  pure 
osteopath?  We  mean  by  that  term  an  osteopath 
who  treats  disease  by  manipulating  according  to 
osteopathic  technique  the  tissues  of  the  body, 
especially  the  tissues  that  constitute  and  support 
the  back  bone  and  the  nerves  that  issue  between 
the  vertebrae.  This  manipulation,  however,  has 
no  hard  and  fast  system,  but  can  and  does  vary 
from  a  single  movement  by  which  "sub-luxations", 
great  or  small,  or  any  other  unusual  stress,  ten- 
sion, or  deflection  may  be  removed,  to  a  general 
treatment,  in  which  the  entire  vertebral  column 
and  its  anatomical  clothes  are  thoroughly  relaxed 
and  readjusted.  As  long  as  the  osteopath  uses  his 
hands  in  his  therapy,  he  may  be  called  a  pure 
osteopath.  The  very  moment  he  adopts  any  other 
procedure  whatever  he  is  no  longer  using  osteo- 
pathy. We  do  not  mean  by  this,  as  some  of  the 

39 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

'■  »■  ■     ■-•■■7"    '  ■ 

unthinking  and  uninformed  critics  of  osteopathy 
imagine,  that  an  osteopath  must  necessarily  be  a 
stupendous  fool,  who  would  attempt  to  stop  a 
hemorrhage  from  the  ears  in  fracture  of  the  skull 
by  manipulating  the  back  bone,  or  who  would 
hold  that  insects  do  not  transmit  disease  germs, 
or  who  would  deny  any  other  known  and  proved 
fact.  To  be  an  osteopath  of  any  intelligence  what- 
soever implies  that  the  man  in  practice  is  a  nor- 
mal, sane  human  being. 

In  a  strict  definition  of  the  term  "pure  osteo- 
pathy", or,  as  many  of  us  call  it  for  short,  "ten- 
finger  osteopathy",  we  need  not  exclude  the  use  of 
rational  methods  of  hygiene  or  diet,  nor  indeed 
any  other  scientific  regimen  that  would  back  up 
pure  osteopathic  treatment.  But  the  fact  of  the 
matter  is  that  many  osteopaths  extend  their 
definition  too  far.  We  do  not  believe  that  Dr. 
Still  would  have  accepted  this  modern  enlarge- 
ment of  his  own  term.  To  say  that  any  method 
which  cures  disease  or  which  assists  nature  in 
recoveries  or  reactions  against  disease  is  osteo- 
pathic is  not  at  all  true ;  but  we  do  not  understand 
that  Dr.  Still  has  ever  held  that  osteopathy  itself, 
as  a  general  therapeutic  agent,  was  opposed  to 
all  kinds  of  hygiene,  diet,  sanitation,  or  therapy 
other  than  osteopathic  manipulation.  To  hold 
such  a  view  would  truly  be  "more  royal  than  the 
king."  And  yet  until  the  last  word  in  osteopathic 
science  has  been  said,  and  the  last  possible  ex- 
periment in  osteopathic  research  has  been  made, 
no  man  can  positively  assert  that  pure  osteo- 
pathic manipulation  will  not  eventually  be  found 

40 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

to  be  all  that  is  necessary  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  and  by  that  we  mean  all  diseases,  includ- 
ing even  the  tumors.  Nor  can  this  belief  be  set 
aside  as  the  dream  of  the  enthusiast.  On  the 
contrary,  such  a  belief  will  emerge  from  a  study 
of  osteopathic  results  —  at  least  in  man  —  made 
with  a  little  actual  first-hand  knowledge  of  the 
body  in  health  and  disease  as  a  working  founda- 
tion for  the  study  itself. 

THE  OSTEOPATH  PRODUCES  TROPISMS  IN 
THE  BODY 

Now  Dr.  still  found  that  when  he  laid  his 
hands,  in  certain  definite  ways,  on  the  back 
bone  of  a  man,  the  body  (and  mind)  of  the  indi- 
vidual gave  back  immediate  and  profound  reac- 
tions— what  the  biologists  call  tropisms ;  and  this 
one  recent  biological  term  tells  the  biologist 
absolutely  the  entire  osteopathic  story;  explains 
to  the  biologist  absolutely  everything  that  does  or 
can  occur  when  this  method  is  used  on  the  body. 

Tropisms  are  the  reactions  of  an  organism  to 
changes  in  the  environment,  and  the  human 
organism  is  highly  susceptible  (in  common  with 
all  other  living  things)  to  such  fundamental  rela- 
tions. Profound  chemical  changes  can  be  brought 
about  in  the  central  nervous  system  (and  hence  in 
the  viscera)  by  stimulation  of  the  nerve  endings 
in  the  skin.  A  prolonged  cold  bath,  for  example, 
will  cause  albumin  to  appear  in  the  urine. 

But  Dr.  Still  found  that  manipulation,  in  cer- 
tain ways,  of  the  spinal  column  and  its  dependent 
tissues  produced  certain  startling  and  special 
reactions,  and  this  was  strikingly  the  case  when- 

41 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ever  there  was  in  the  back  bone  any  visible  or 
palpable  irregularity  or  lesion  or  deflection.  His 
studies  of  the  spinal  mechanism  led  him  to  the 
conviction  that  virtually  all  so-called  diseases, 
pains,  symptoms,  and  so  on,  were  indirectly 
caused  by  these  spinal  lesions,  when  other  ana- 
tomical lesions,  or  displacements,  or  tensions,  or 
other  structural  defects,  were  absent  elsewhere. 
Disease,  in  this  way,  quickly  resolved  itself,  in  his 
mind,  into  two  grand  divisions — local  and  sys- 
temic. It  is  diflEicult,  often  impossible,  to  find  a 
spinal  lesion  (of  any  kind)  in  a  given  case.  There- 
fore must  we  say  it  does  not  exist?  By  no  means. 
The  spinal  column  has  been  developed  into  a 
mechanism  which,  by  its  very  structure,  is  subject 
to  continuous  bony  displacements  and  to  con- 
tinuous automatic  correction  of  these  displace- 
ments. But  this  corrective  mechanism  is  by  no 
means  perfect,  and  it  is  rational  to  hold  that  every 
spine  is  subject  to  a  certain  percentage  of  dis- 
placements that  do  not  correct  themselves.  These 
displacements  may  be  so  fine  as  to  be  difl[icult  to 
find,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  they  are  there  neverthe- 
less. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  this  view  of  things 
there  is  considerable  assumption,  but  such 
assumption  certainly  seems  warranted  when  the 
matter  is  given  sufficient  thought,  and  the  more 
it  is  studied  the  higher  the  warrant  becomes.  We 
must  not  forget,  however,  that  however  high  the 
warrant,  it  is  still  assumption,  but  assumption  is 
always  necessary  in  every  theory  of  science.  The 
generic  law  of  the  spinal  lesion  is  peculiar  to 

42 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

osteopathy,  but  it  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
osteopathy  includes  all  anatomical  lesions  other 
than  spinal.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that 
fact. 

With  these  main  theories  in  mind  Dr.  Still  be- 
gan the  practice  of  the  therapy  he  afterwards 
called  osteopathy,  and  in  a  few  years,  with  no 
other  method  to  help  him,  he  made  the  name  of 
Kirksville,  the  city  of  his  residence,  famous 
throughout  the  world,  by  working  out  the  numer- 
ous and  seemingly  miraculous  cures,  which  the 
practitioners  of  his  school  have  been  continuing 
in  the  years  that  have  followed. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  spinal  lesion  as  a 
cause  of  disease  must  be  regarded  from  two  points 
of  view,  and  that  two  kinds  of  lesions  must  be 
considered.  There  are  what  may  be  called  pri- 
mary lesions — originating  in  the  vertebral  column 
itself,  and  acting  reflexly  upon  other  parts  of  the 
body ;  and  lesions  secondary  in  the  spine,  originat- 
ing in  other  parts  of  the  body,  and  registered  in 
the  spine  itself — injuries  in  the  spinal  tissues,  pro- 
duced, for  example,  by  toxins,  the  sources  of 
which  are  remote  from  the  spinal  tissues.  So,  too, 
there  may  be  in  the  spine  bony  lesions — displace- 
ments of  the  vertebrae,  or  apart  from  these,  and 
existing  without  them,  certain  stiffnesses,  ten- 
sions, contractures,  or  other  changes  in  the  lig- 
aments and  musculature  of  the  spine.  It  is  clear 
now  that  if  the  lesions  be  primary  in  the  spine 
their  correction  should  re-establish  health.  But 
it  is  not  so  clear  that  the  correction  of  secondary 
lesions,  especially  muscle  lesions,  will  be  followed 

43 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

by  the  same  results.  And  in  this  crux  of  his  work 
the  real  genius  of  Dr.  Still  is  seen.  As  the  very- 
fundamental  principle  of  his  theory,  therefore,  Dr. 
Still  asserted  that  the  blood  and  the  tissues  had  in 
them  a  chemical  mechanism  that  was  nature's  own 
prevention  and  cure  of  disease.  "You  do  not  need 
drugs,"  he  said.  "The  blood  has  a  hundred  drugs 
of  its  own  of  which  the  doctor  knows  nothing.  But 
the  body's  drugs  actually  cure  the  disease,  whereas 
the  doctor's  drugs  kill." 

THE  BLOOD  CONTAINS  THE  MECHANISM  OF 
HEALING 

The  lesion  in  the  spine,  blocking  the  free  flow 
of  blood  to  any  part  of  the  body,  interferes  with 
the  chemical  conduct  of  the  body,  and  with  the 
lifting  of  this  embargo  nature  itself  does  the 
necessary  work  to  restore  the  body  to  its  normal 
state  and  even  beyond  it.  Now  this  principle,  as 
we  saw  in  the  first  part  of  our  study,  is  nothing 
more  or  less  than  the  first  announcement  of  the 
general  fact  of  immunity,  a  principle  that  has, 
since  Dr.  Still's  discovery,  replaced  all  other 
theories  of  disease  and  its  possible  cure. 

HUMAN  BODY  UNDER  CONTROL  OF  OSTEO- 
PATHIC FINGERS 

It  has  be6n  truly  and  wisely  said  that  Dr.  Still's 
one  grand  discovery  as  a  practical  therapist  was 
the  fact  that  one  human  body,  with  all  its  won- 
derful structure  and  function,  with  all  its  marvel- 
ous resources  and  susceptibilities,  could  be  brought 
under  the  control  of  another  individual,  who,  with 
intelligent  understanding  of  anatomy  and  the  ap- 
plication of  the  special  technique  worked  out  by 

44 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

Dr.  Still,  could  play  upon  the  mechanism  of  that 
body  as  the  skilled  performer  plays  upon  the  com- 
plex musical  instrument. 

No  figure  of  speech,  however,  is  needed  to  realize 
the  fact  Dr.  Still  gave  to  the  world  a  system  of 
therapy  absolutely  original  in  every  one  of  its  ap- 
plications; that  he  at  one  stroke  not  only  cast 
aside,  in  a  thorough-going  and  radical  way,  the 
entire  system  of  medical  practice  with  its  purges 
and  emetics,  its  alteratives  and  demulcents,  its 
anodynes  and  cholagogues,  its  stimulants  and  se- 
datives, and  its  thousand  and  one  other  super- 
stitions that  had  fogged  the  brain  and  paralyzed 
the  hand  of  therapy  for  ages — cleaned  out  the 
whole  system  at  one  stroke — and  replaced  it  with 
a  practice  grounded  upon  the  most  striking  gen- 
eralization of  physiological  science  the  world  has 
ever  known.  He  gave  to  the  world  this  entirely 
new  method  of  treating  diseases,  the  result  of 
which  are  unparalleled  and  unapproached  in 
human  history.  For  up  to  the  time  of  that  dis- 
covery there  was  positively  no  method  of  treating 
diseases  in  general  that  was  followed  by  any  re- 
sults whatsoever  save  harmful  ones.  The  only 
system  of  therapy  at  all  comparable  with  osteo- 
pathy that  has  appeared  since  his  time,  is  that  of 
serum  and  vaccine  therapy,  and  this  has  been 
found  to  have  fallen  immeasurably  below  its  first 
promise  and  expectation.  But  serum  and  vaccine 
therapy,  let  it  always  be  remembered,  was  founded 
on  the  identical  principle  of  Dr.  Still  himself — 
the  body's  own  natural  resistance  to  disease  of 
every  kind.    And  this  therapy  is  general  in  no 

46 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

sense  of  that  word.  So  that  we  can  truly  say  that 
osteopathy  is  the  only  scientific,  universal  therapy 
as  yet  put  into  practice,  which  in  no  form  what- 
ever depends  upon  or  grows  out  of  any  other  sys- 
tem or  method  or  theory  since  men  first  attempted 
the  treatment  of  disease  by  means  other  than 
those  of  the  medicine  man  of  the  savage  tribe,  who 
called  in  the  supernatural  to  his  assistance. 

With  this  absolutely  unique  and  perfectly 
original  method  in  their  hands,  the  pupils  of  Dr. 
Still,  the  men  and  women  trained  under  his  in- 
fluence, have  been  treating  diseases  of  every  de- 
scription for  twenty  years  or  more,  and  he  would 
indeed  be  a  man  of  neither  common  sense  nor 
ordinary  fairness  nor  openness  of  mind  who  would 
deny  the  results  the  profession  of  osteopathy  has 
won  with  no  other  n;ethod  than  that  of  what  has 
been  called  pure  osteopathy  by  the  foremost  and 
oldest  practitioners  of  the  art.  These  results  have 
been  culled  from  thousands  of  bed-sides  and  from 
tens  of  thousands  of  cases  pronounced  hopeless,  or 
incurable,  by  other  practitioners  of  medicine,  who 
have  seen  with  startled  curiosity  and  vain  regret 
the  osteopathic  tide,  as  it  has  swept  such  incur- 
ables into  the  ranks  of  perfectly  healthy  men, 
women  and  children.  Into  all  fields  and  all  special- 
ties of  medicine  has  osteopathy  entered,  and  each 
and  every  one  of  the  cured  incurables  has  become 
in  turn  a  new  prophet  and  propagandist,  with 
spontaneous  testimony  as  to  the  virtue  of  the 
method  in  each  particular  case. 

In  this  respect,  too,  osteopathy  has  differed 
most  essentially  from  the  two  other  main  special 

46 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

reforms  in  medicine.  We  mean  homeopathy  and 
eclecticism — the  schools  of  Hahnemann  and  Ben- 
nett. The  great  Osier  could  truly  say  that  the 
homeopaths,  who  used  virtually  no  medicine  at 
all,  lost  as  few  patients  as  the  old  school  with  poi- 
sonous drugs.  Indeed  they  lost  fewer.  But 
homeopathy,  with  its  vanishing  quantities  of 
drugs,  did  not  cure  patients  whom  the  older 
school  dismissed  as  incurables.  And  this  is  pre- 
cisely what  Dr.  Still  did  time  and  again  until  his 
retirement  from  active  life,  and  what  every  prac- 
titioner of  his  school  has  done  from  the  beginning, 
and  is  doing  every  day.  These  facts  form  the 
popular  foundation  on  which  the  success  of  osteo- 
pathy rests,  and  this  foundation  only  grows,  and 
can  only  grow  deeper  and  stronger  with  the  pas- 
sage of  time,  as  the  number  of  practicing  osteo- 
paths increases  year  by  year,  and  the  known  re- 
sults of  their  practice  correspondingly  increase. 

But  the  curing  of  incurables  is  not  by  any 
means  the  limits  of  the  method,  for  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  older  doctors  have  been 
accustomed  to  confuse  the  terms  "curable"  and 
"recoverable".  All  diseases  from  which  the 
patient  naturally  recovers  have  been  classified  as 
"curable"  by  the  medical  profession.  But  thus 
far,  the  diseases  that  have  been  cured  by  the 
medical  art  (apart  from  osteopathic  medical  art) 
can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand. 

Dr.  Still,  going  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  said, 
in  his  almost  too  gigantic  way,  "I  looked  around 
me  and  asked  myself  where  were  the  patients  we, 
the  doctors,  had  been  treating  for  disease?    And  I 

47 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

was  compelled  to  answer,  'They  are  dead!' — And 
it  was  then  that  I  realized  that  something  was 
wrong  with  medicine." 

It  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  there  never  has 
been  a  physician  from  Lieberkuehn  to  Osier  who 
has  not,  in  his  thoughtful  moments,  felt  the  same 
intense  conviction  that  was  expressed  by  Dr.  Still 
in  the  above  words,  but  the  likeness  between  him 
and  all  the  others  (save  four  or  five)  stopped 
right  there.  It  remained  for  him  to  find  out  what 
was  wrong,  to  remove  the  error,  and  to  put  in  its 
stead  a  practical  and  scientific  substitute,  and 
that  substitute  is  osteopathy.  What,  now,  was 
the  error?  The  answer  may  be  expressed  in  one 
word  —  drugs.  And  as  early  as  the  year  1873 
— ^and  earlier — Dr.  Still,  with  one  supreme  wave 
of  his  hand,  swept  the  entire  system  of  drug 
therapy  clear  out,  root  and  branch,  replacing  it 
with  what  he  called,  for  want  of  a  better  name, 
Osteopathy.  It  is  difficult  for  us  in  these  days 
when  osteopathic  therapy  is  one  of  the  established 
facts  of  the  day  to  realize  the  hugeness  of  Dr. 
Still's  achievement.  To  realize  it  fully  we  must 
forget  what  has  occurred  during  the  past  forty 
years,  place  ourselves  back  with  him  in  1873,  and 
become  conscious  of  this  huge  naked  fact: 

Andrew  Taylor  Still  was  not  only  the  originator 
of  manual  therapy,  but  he  also  (and  this  is  a 
huger  fact)  was  the  originator  of  drugless  medi- 
cine! 

Drugless  medicine  is  today  a  fact  of  universal 
recognition  and  force — a  fact  familiar  to  the 
whole  world,  and  perhaps  the  only  forward  step 

48 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

that  medicine  has  taken  since  the  time  of  the 
ancients;  for  it  is  hardly  fair  to  regard  the  vac- 
cines and  the  serums  of  modern  times  as  true 
drugs,  although  they  are  so  classified  by  their 
users.  Nor  is  it  fair  to  discount  the  full  and  sole 
credit  for  this  great  and  radical  reform  which 
should  spontaneously  flow  to  Dr.  Still,  on  the 
ground  that  the  time  was  ripe,  that  drugless 
medicine  was  coming  anyway,  and  that  if  he  did 
not  establish  it  some  other  man  would  have  done 
so.  Quite  true.  It  would  have  been  established 
by  some  other  genius  of  prime  order.  But  the 
same  thing  may  be  said  with  equal  force  of  all 
other  great  reforms  whatsoever.  Nor  yet  can  we 
discount  that  credit  by  saying  that  Flaubert,  the 
French  physician  of  the  late  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  century,  was  the  first  modern  to  see 
the  vanity  and  futility  of  the  ancient  apothecary 
system,  so  well  set  forth  in  the  realistic  novel, 
Madame  Bovary,  published  about  1850  by  his 
son,  Gustave  Flaubert,  a  book  that  everybody 
interested  in  medicine  should  read.  Flaubert's 
perception  was  without  force  and  effect,  and  the 
entire  drug  system  was  absolutely  intact  after- 
wards. Nor  can  we  deprive  Dr.  Still  of  the  entire 
credit  for  drugless  medicine  by  saying  that  the 
physiologists  of  the  middle  nineteenth  century 
were  beginning  to  become  convinced  that  the 
"remedies"  of  medicine  were  in  reality  poisons — 
a  principle  which  was  afterwards  formulated  in 
the  pharmacological  maxim  that  all  substances 
that  are  chemically  active  in  the  body  are  either 
foods  or  poisons,  and  that  any  substance  chem- 

49 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ically  active  in  the  body  that  is  not  a  food  is  there- 
fore a  poison. 

But  what  do  these  facts  mean?  They  mean 
that  Dr.  Still's  original  perception  and  theory 
of  the  action  of  drugs  has  been  experimentally 
proved  by  all  the  pharmacologists  of  the  world 
in  the  past  twenty-five  or  thirty  years.  We  will 
recur  to  this  matter  in  a  moment.  Nor  can  we 
classify  Hahnemann  and  Bennett  with  Still  in  this 
respect.  For  while  the  great  German  and  the 
great  Scotch  reformer  of  medicine,  like  the  great 
American  reformer,  perceived  that  there  was 
something  radically  wrong  with  the  medicine  of 
their  day,  they  did  no  more  in  the  actual  prac- 
tices they  founded  than  substitute  one  system  of 
drugging  for  another ;  the  German,  indeed,  enlarg- 
ing the  number  of  drugs  in  use,  but  reducing  the 
dose  to  the  vanishing  point;  the  Scotchman,  on 
the  other  hand,  increasing  the  dose  by  increasing 
the  strength  of  the  drug — ^the  "specific",  fresh- 
extracted  drugs  of  the  eclectic.  Nor  yet  can  we 
discount  Still's  great  reform  by  saying  that  Vir- 
chow,  the  founder  of  modern  pathology,  indirectly 
demonstrated  the  futility  of  drugs  by  his  studies 
of  the  tissues  of  disease,  because  the  lesson  that 
Virchow  taught  had  no  practical  result  against  the 
use  of  the  old  remedies,  neither  in  the  beginning 
of  his  work  nor  since.  Thus  if  we  consider  all  the 
elements  of  reform  that  were  working  out  the 
general  movement  that  culminated  in  the  drugless 
medicine  and  manual  therapy  of  Still,  we  will  see 
that  his  grand  generalizations  were  quite  in- 
dependent of  and  uninfluenced  by  these  various 

50 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

elements.  They  were  made  by  a  man  quite  free 
from  all  influence  of  Flaubert,  or  of  Virchow,  or 
of  the  early  physiologists,  and  of  course  of  Hahne- 
mann and  Bennett,  for  these  men  were  still  held 
fast  in  the  meshes  of  the  drug  net.  And  we  can 
not  say  that  Still  was  influenced  by  the  researches 
of  pharmacology,  for  these  researches  did  not  be- 
come scientifically  organized  and  progressive  until 
long  after  the  drugless  manual  therapy  of  Still 
was  a  fact  familiar  to  everybody  in  America. 

WHEN  DOCTORS  DENOUNCED  THE  PHARMA- 
COLOGISTS 

Pharmacology  is  the  science  which  studies  the 
effects  of  drugs  on  the  animal  body.  This  science 
had  its  beginnings  in  the  experiments  which  were 
made  by  physiologists  in  the  administration  of 
various  drugs  to  animals,  principally  dogs,  and  the 
careful  recording  of  such  effects  by  means  of  in- 
struments of  precision,  invented  for  that  purpose. 
In  this  way  the  action  of  many  alkaloids,  such  as 
pilocarpin,  atropine,  strychnine,  and  others,  came 
to  be  fully  understood,  one  drug  playing  the  part 
of  antagonist  to  the  other,  and  the  entire  effect 
being  recorded  on  the  kymograph — a  revolving 
drum  covered  with  smoked  paper  on  which  was 
written  the  cure  of  the  blood  pressure  and  res- 
piration. The  effects  of  adrenalin  on  the  blood 
were  demonstrated  by  this  technique,  thus  sug- 
gesting some  of  the  normal  effects  of  the  secretion 
of  the  adrenal  gland  in  the  body.  By  other  and 
more  refined  methods  of  research  the  effects  of 
nicotine  on  the  nerve  centers  were  brought  into 
view.    Also  the  physiological  effects  of  numerous 

51 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

drugs,  administered  freely  to  their  human  sub- 
jects by  physicians,  were  studied  carefully,  and 
many  new  perceptions  of  normal  physiology  were 
thus  made  by  the  researchers.  But  incidentally 
was  brought  out  the  fact  that  all  drugs  were 
harmful  through  the  chemical  anarchy  they  pro- 
duced in  the  organs  of  the  body. 

These  investigations  and  their  conclusions  were 
at  first  unknown  to  the  medical  profession  at 
large;  but  when  that  profession  began  to  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  the  results  of  pharmacologi- 
cal science,  its  members  rose  up  in  fierce  denunci- 
ation of  the  pharmacologists — charging  these  gen- 
tlemen with  drawing  conclusions  unwarranted  by 
their  experiments,  and  holding  that  they  had  no 
business  or  right  to  reason  from  dogs  to  man — 
that  because  a  drug  had  this  or  that  effect  upon 
a  dog  was  no  reason  why  it  should  have  the  same 
eflfect  upon  the  human  body.  The  doctors  saw 
that  the  whole  drug  therapy  was  being  under- 
mined, and  that  the  medical  man,  deprived  of  the 
use  of  drugs,  would  be  deprived  of  the  only  therapy 
he  had!  Therefore,  the  medical  man  fought  the 
pharmacologists  with  the  same  malicious  weapon 
with  which  he  had  long  been  trying  to  fight  osteo- 
pathic treatment  and  A.  T.  Still,  its  discoverer. 
But  the  pharmacologists  kept  on  playing,  and 
soon  a  course  in  pharmacology  became  an  essential 
in  the  up-to-date  medical  school — a  course  which 
was  calculated  to  leave  the  medical  man  at  least 
partly  informed  in  the  effects  of  the  drugs  he 
would  use,  did  he  use  drugs  at  all  .  And  at  this 
juncture  we  began  to  hear,  in  the  medical  schools, 

52 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

much  talk  concerning  "preventive  medicine,"  a 
medicine  drugless  quite,  but  distinctly  not  thera- 
peutic. Whathasbeen  the  result?  The  result  has 
been  this,  that  drugs  are  clear  out  of  court  in  the 
general  practice  of  medicine  by  every  well  inform- 
ed and  scientifically  instructed  doctor  in  America. 
Treatment  has  vanished  in  diagnosis,  and  the 
main  desideratum  of  every  physician  is  to  find  out 
what  it  is  that  ails  his  patient  (the  name  of  the 
disease),  the  "treatment"  being  a  wholly  proble-' 
matical  matter.  In  this  way  has  science  again  con- 
firmed one  of  the  main  generalizations  of  A.  T. 
Still. 

HE  FIRST  PERCEIVED  THE  TRUTH  OF  GENERAL 
IMMUNITY 

A  fair  appreciation  of  the  work  that  Dr.  Still 
did  may  be  summarized  under  a  few  heads. 

He  was  the  first  to  perceive  the  fact  that  the 
animal  body  had  in  it,  developed  by  the  necessities 
of  the  preservation  of  living  forms  against  obliter- 
ation by  the  destructive  agents  of  disease,  and 
other  destructive  agents,  a  natural  inherited 
mechanism  of  resistance  or  defense  which  causes 
the  blood  and  tissues  to  react  against  disease  and 
establish  recovery  or  cure. 

He  was  the  first  to  extend  this  principle  of  im- 
munity to  virtually  all  diseases  (so  called)  what- 
soever. 

He  was  the  first  to  put  into  practice  the  per- 
ception that  artificially  compounded  substances 
called  drugs  were  not  only  not  remedies  for  dis- 
ease, but  were  positively  hurtful  to  the  organism, 

53 


DR.    ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

and  interferers  with  the  natural  mechanism  of 
defense.  He  was  the  originator  of  drugless 
medicine. 

He  was  the  first  to  found  a  therapy  on  mechan- 
ical principles,  that  was  calculated  to  help  the 
body  in  its  efforts  to  re-establish  new  physiological 
equilibriums — new  normal  states — after  disease, 
in  any  of  its  forms,  had  invaded  the  body;  or 
when  the  body  was  thrown  out  of  its  normal 
action  by  mechanical  (anatomical)  lesions. 

He  was  the  first  to  establish  a  general  method 
of  profoundly  altering  the  chemisms  of  the  body 
(in  a  way  favorable  to  health  and  free  function- 
ing) by  profoundly  altering  the  body's  environ- 
ment, through  the  use  of  the  hands,  in  definite 
manipulations,  along  the  spinal  column  and  its 
tissues.  In  other  words,  he  was  the  first  to  apply 
the  biological  principle  of  tropisms  to  an  actual 
therapy,  the  results  of  which  could  not  but  be 
good. 

These,  in  brief,  were  the  contributions  of  A.  T. 
Still  to  medical  science  and  art,  and  it  is  probable 
that  as  much  can  be  said  for  no  other  man  in  the 
history  of  the  medical  sciences  themselves,  when 
actual  practice  and  results  are  the  things  in  dis- 
pute. 

OSTEOPATHY  A  COMPLEX  SYSTEM 

If  we  analyze  this  system  of  manual  therapy, 
called  osteopathy  by  its  discoverer  and  pro- 
tagonist, we  shall  see  that  it  is  by  no  means  the 
simple  thing  that  so  many  practitioners  of  medi- 
cine, who  have  not  inquired  into  its  methods  and 
results,  have  imagined  and  imagine  to  this  day. 

54 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

In  the  first  place  it  is  anything  but  a  massage,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  the  hands  are  used  in  its  ap- 
plication. It  is  based  first  on  natural  body  re- 
sistance to  disease,  in  which  must  be  figured  not 
only  the  normal  histological  (and  microscopic) 
anatomy  of  the  body,  to  say  nothing  at  all  of  the 
gross  anatomy  in  which  the  microscopic  structures 
mass  themselves,  but  also  upon  the  pathological 
changes  (the  reactions)  that  occur  in  these  struc- 
tures in  disease.  It  is  based  upon  the  internal 
tropisms  of  the  body  organism,  brought  about  by 
the  chemistry,  or  chemisms,  of  the  blood  and 
lymph — a  chemism  which  Dr.  Still  thrust  vigor- 
ously forward  as  his  main  proposition.  It  sweeps 
under  its  views  all  the  changes  that  occur  in  this 
complex  body  mechanism  because  of  mechanical 
faults,  whatever  their  origin,  in  that  gross  ana- 
tomical structure.  It  figures  the  correction  of 
these  faults,  especially  in  the  spine,  as  being  vir- 
tuous in  the  cure  of  disease,  whether  the  tissue 
faults  be  primary  in  the  spine  (or  other  structure) 
or  secondary  in  these  structures,  through  the 
presence  of  toxins  or  poisons  in  the  blood,  pro- 
duced and  thrown  into  the  blood  by  the  growth  of 
disease  germs  anywhere  in  the  body.  It  figures 
that  osteopathic  manipulation  of  the  spine,  in  a 
theoretically  normal  state,  can  and  does  produce 
an  exaggeration  of  the  body's  reaction  against  the 
toxins  of  the  body's  own  activities,  an  effect  the 
osteopath  calls  stimulation.  But  this  stimulation 
not  only  involves  stimulation  of  organs  such  as 
the  liver  and  all  other  glands,  and  the  involuntary 
musculature  of  the  body,  but  stimulation  also  of 

55 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

those  cells  that  manufacture  the  antibodies  to  the 
germs  of  disease  and  their  toxins,  thus  increasing 
the  "antibody  content"  of  the  blood,  which  we 
may  now  regard  as  normal  secretions,  quite  as 
much  as  we  so  regard  the  gastric  juice,  the  bile,  or 
the  products  of  the  internal-secreting  organs, — 
the  ductless  glands — as  normal  secretions. 

CAUSES  THE  HUMAN  ORGANISM  TO  PRODUCE 
ANTI-BODIES 

To  say  that  this  sort  of  physiological  oil  for  the 
body's  machinery  is  simple,  is  saying  more  than 
the  barest  inquiry  into  the  facts  will  warrant.  A 
certain  widely  known  writer  on  internal  secre- 
tions has  said  that  the  osteopath  secures  his 
results  by  stimulating  the  ductless  gland,  and 
this  may  be  so.  But  until  more  is  known  about 
the  ductless  glands  than  is  known  at  present  or 
until  it  is  established  that  every  cell  in  the  body  is 
an  individual  ductless  gland  in  itself,  we  can  pro- 
ceed on  the  theory  announced  in  general  terms  by 
Dr.  Still  himself,  that  the  fingers  of  the  osteopath 
release  the  general  mechanism  of  the  body  against 
disease  in  whatever  ultimate  structure  this 
mechanism  may  lie,  if  indeed  it  lies  anywhere  in 
particular.  So  that  we  can  add  another  adjective 
to  Dr.  Still's  idea — ^that  of  being  general  in  its 
principle  and  application. 

In  conclusion  we  can  say  that  the  facts  of 
osteopathy,  especially  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
demonstrable  facts  of  immunity,  offers  one  of  the 
most  alluring  fields  for  practical  laboratory  ex- 
periment and  we  can  add,  furthermore,  that  re- 
search is  not  wanting  the  purpose  of  which  is  to 

56 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

put  into  the  test-tube  the  results  which  the  osteo- 
path's fingers  can  work,  not  only  in  the  human 
body  but  in  the  bodies  of  those  humbler  animals 
that  have  given  to  biological  science  the  most  strik- 
ing generalizations  it  has.  But  such  a  work  would 
only  put  the  cap-stone  on  the  grand  edifice  already 
reared  by  Dr.  A.  T.  Still  long  before  test-tubes  or 
microscopes  were  ever  dreamed  of  in  this  par- 
ticular way,  and  not  long  before  science,  in  the 
person  of  Brown-Sequard,  had  suggested  that  in 
internal  secretion  would  probably  be  found  the 
key  to  the  mysteries  of  health  and  disease  them- 
selves. 


57 


IV 


OSTEOPATHY  IN  THE  INFECTIOUS 
DISEASES 

The  fact  that  the  blood  and  the  tissues  resist 
diseases  of  various  kinds  is  one  of  the  most 
anciently  and  familiarly  known  facts  of  human 
observation  and  experience,  and  it  is  a  fact,  fur- 
thermore, that  has  been  absolutely  demonstrated 
by  the  experimental  pathologists  of  Europe  and 
America  during  the  past  twenty-five  years.  This 
resistance  of  the  blood  and  the  tissues  (so  called 
"body  resistance")  to  diseases  of  every  kind — 
even  to  those  mysteriously  caused  new  growths 
called  "tumors" — ^has  been  called  immunity  by 
that  wonderful  group  of  men  in  Europe  who  have 
done  so  much  to  extend  the  science  of  the  physi- 
ology of  disease,  and  to  vindicate  the  theory  and 
practice  of  Andrew  Taylor  Still,  the  founder  of 
osteopathy. 

Osteopaths  never  tire  of  talking  about  and  re- 
ferring to  Dr.  Still,  and  truly  he  deserves  all 
praise,  as  Ehrlich  and  other  great  investigators 
deserve  praise  for  like  reasons,  namely,  their 
great  and  original  power  in  seeing  deeply  into 
things  theoretically;  because  were  it  not  for 
theory  practice  could  never  become  an  established 
fact. 

The  body  cells  and  the  body  fluids — ^that  is, 
blood  and  lymph — ^have  the  power  of  preventing 
the  growth  and  multiplication  of  disease  germs 

58 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

and  of  the  cells  of  which  tumors  consist.  In  some 
persons  this  so-called  "resistance"  is  absolute. 
Such  persons  are  perfectly  immune  to  certain  dis- 
eases. Others  are  not  quite  perfectly  immune. 
Others  are  still  less  immune  (more  susceptible), 
and  others  still  are  scarcely  immune  at  all — ^that 
is,  they  are  highly  susceptible  to  certain  diseases ; 
have  scarcely  any  resistance  whatever. 

All  human  beings,  however,  have  a  certain 
amount  of  resistance  to  all  diseases,  and  it  is  this 
varying  amount  of  resistance  to  various  diseases 
that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  varying  and 
variable  panorama  of  disease  we  see  in  men  and 
in  all  the  lower  animals,  too;  for  animals,  like 
men,  are  bound  by  the  same  unvarying  natural 
laws  of  life  and  its  marvelous  chemisms.  When 
it  is  said  that  there  is  a  "predisposing  cause"  of 
disease,  we  mean  that  this  body  resistance  is  more 
or  less  lacking. 

Now,  let  us  consider  one  other  exceedingly  im- 
portant fact:  The  amount  of  resistance  which 
any  particular  individual  may  have  at  any  partic- 
ular time,  is  (as  a  rule)  increased  the  very  mo- 
ment a  disease  begins  to  grow  in  the  body.  And 
this  increase  of  resistance  tends  to  grow  with  the 
growth  of  the  disease  until  the  disease  conquers 
the  body  or  the  body  conquers  the  disease,  or  a 
certain  equilibrium  is  established;  and  there  re- 
sults a  slow  "chronic"  disease  of  a  certain  type. 
These  facts  are  true  in  the  vast  majority  of  those 
states  of  body  generally  called  disease. 

This  was  the  original  theory  of  Andrew  Taylor 
Still,  announced  by  him  long  before  the  great  im- 

59 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

munologists  of  Europe  proved  it  was  true  by  ex- 
periments on  animals.  And  it  was  this  very  in- 
crease of  the  natural  resistance  common  to  all 
living  things  that  Dr.  Still  had  in  mind  when  he 
said  long  ago  that  the  blood  and  tissues  contain  in 
themselves  all  that  is  necessary  to  overcome  the 
disease  to  which  the  blood  and  the  tissues  are  sus- 
ceptible, providing  it  is  released  by  adequate 
adjustment  or  stimulation. 

That  is  why  the  osteopath  is  serene  and  calm  in 
the  conviction  of  the  soundness  of  his  own  theory 
and  practice,  and  indeed  the  results  of  osteopathic 
treatment  (wonderful  in  many  cases)  are  to  be 
accounted  for  by  this  explanation  and  by  this 
explanation  alone. 

The  natural  resistance  of  the  body  to  disease 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  blood  and  the  tissues  con- 
tain countless  billions  of  inconceivably  small  par- 
ticles (molecules,  in  chemical  language  and,  as 
they  were  called  by  Dr.  Still,  "atoms  in  the 
blood"),  which  have  a  powerful  chemical  affinity 
for  the  disease  germs  or  their  poisons  (toxins) 
or  with  the  cells  of  tumors,  and  which,  uniting 
with  these  germs,  toxins,  or  cells  of  tumors,  neu- 
tralize or  destroy  them,  leaving  the  body  sound — 
what  we  call  "well".  These  little  particles,  or 
molecules,  that  unite  with  the  substances  that  pro- 
duce the  symptoms  of  the  disease  are  called 
"antibodies",  or  bodies  directed  against  the  agents 
of  the  disease.  These  facts  constitute  the  heart 
of  the  great  theory  of  immunity,  which,  for  the 
past  twenty-five  years  has  filled  the  world  with  its 

60 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

noise,  and  which  was  first  suggested  and  first 
acted  upon  in  a  practical  way  by  Still  and  his 
school. 

From  the  above  facts  it  should  be  clear  that  any 
method  which  can  increase  the  antibodies  to  dis- 
ease— which  can  increase  the  defenses  of  the  body 
against  disease,  which  Nature  has  planted  in  the 
body  itself — would  be  a  prime  and  scientific 
method  of  treating  disease  and  of  producing  re- 
sults which  would  seem  "marvelous"  and  "mir- 
aculous" to  persons  who  did  not  understand  the 
facts  that  lie  at  the  root  of  the  phenomenon. 
Osteopaths  have  long  since  grown  accustomed  to 
hearing  much  of  their  work  spoken  of  as  mar- 
velous and  miraculous,  but  few  osteopaths  are 
foolish  enough  to  believe  that  whatever  results 
they  have  had  in  the  treatment  of  disease  are  due 
to  anything  but  some  fundamental  law  or  fact 
concerning  that  marvelous  mechanism  called  "the 
body".  The  results  merely  prove  the  marvel  of 
Nature  itself. 

INFLUENZA 

Not  long  ago  a  certain  experimenter  in  a  large 
osteopathic  school  undertook  a  series  of  obser- 
vations on  the  results  of  osteopathic  treatment  for 
influenza,  and  although  this  work  is  more  interest- 
ing for  the  doctor  than  for  the  layman,  even  the 
layman  can  understand  something  of  its  import- 
ant significance. 

Almost  everybody  is  familiar  with  the  main 
facts  of  influenza.  There  is  first  the  feeling  ex- 
pressed in  the  words,  "I  feel  queer  today;  I  don't 
know  what's  the  matter  with  me."  Next  day  the 

61 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

symptoms  become  clearer.  There  is  ache  in  the 
back  and  bones,  in  the  muscles  of  the  neck,  back, 
legs  and  other  parts  of  the  body,  pronounced 
fever,  and  head,  eye  and  nose  symptoms.  The 
"matter"  is  a  "cold"  and  a  "bad"  one.  And  now 
if  the  nasal  or  throat  secretions  be  "smeared"  on  a 
bit  of  glass,  stained  in  a  certain  way  according  to 
the  simple  technique  of  bacteriology,  and  exam- 
ined in  the  highest  powers  of  the  microscope, 
countless  numbers  of  a  tiny  rod-like  organism  are 
seen  —  the  bacillus  of  influenza.  They  are  so 
numerous  that  it  is  plain  at  a  single  glance  that 
the  nose  and  throat  of  the  patient  are  housing  and 
feeding  inconceivably  vast  numbers  of  this  minute 
organisms,  of  this  bacillus,  or  "germ",  the  toxin  of 
which,  being  absorbed  by  the  tissues  and  blood, 
poison  the  body  and  produce  the  symptoms  called 
the  grip. 

Presently — in  a  few  days — ^the  secretions  from 
the  nose  and  throat  are  yellowish  (pus),  and  in 
the  pus  are  still  seen  many  bacilli  of  influenza,  but 
the  number  is  slowly  being  cut  down;  the  pus 
consisting  of  dead  phagocytes — ^the  soldier  cells  of 
the  blood.  The  soldier  cells  and  other  cells  of  the 
body  are  manufacturing  the  antibodies  (and  other 
substances)  which  neutralize  the  toxins,  destroy 
the  bacilli,  and  restore  the  body  to  its  former 
normal  state.  Soon  the  pus  begins  to  diminish 
rapidly  in  quantity,  the  bacilli  of  influenza  die  out 
and  disappear  rapidly,  and  after,  say  fourteen  to 
twenty-one  days,  the  nasal  and  throat  secretion 
shows  no  influenza  bacilli  at  all.  The  antibodies, 
produced  by  the  body  as  a  reaction  against  the 

62 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

germs  and  their  toxin,  have  worked  a  "cure". 
Nature  alone  has  done  the  job. 

If  reasonably  large  doses  of  quinine  be  taken 
(even  when  the  "bowels  are  kept  open"  by  gen- 
erous purgatives)  this  natural  "cure"  is  delayed 
and  the  bacilli  do  not  disappear  (together  with 
the  symptoms)  for  several  days  or  weeks  after 
Nature,  if  not  interfered  with,  would  have  done 
the  job  alone.  In  other  words,  there  is  no  drug 
treatment  for  the  grip  that  does  not  delay  the 
natural  cure. 

Now  the  experimenter  in  question  ascertained 
certain  interesting  facts  about  the  grip,  which 
every  osteopathic  physician  understands  when  he 
considers  the  facts  about  immunity. 

If  on  the  second,  or  even  the  third  day  of  the 
infection,  a  generous  and  general  osteopathic 
treatment  (neck  and  spine  all  the  way  down)  be 
given,  so  that  the  spinal  nerves  are  released  from 
tissue  tension  and  well  stimulated,  there  is  experi- 
enced almost  immediately  by  the  patient  a  most 
marked  relief,  something  coming  so  quickly  as  to 
be  startling;  and  in  some  not  frequent  cases  the 
symptoms  during  the  succeeding  twenty-four 
hours  seem  to  be  increased — ^the  patient  seems  to 
feel  "worse".  But  before  the  end  of  forty-eight 
hours — sometimes  sooner,  and  sometimes  within 
the  twenty-four  hours,  and  without  any  seeming 
increase  of  discomfort  —  the  symptoms  almost 
completely,  if  not  completely  disappear.  And  if 
the  secretions  from  the  nose  and  throat  be  now 
examined  only  a  comparatively  few  bacilli  of  influ- 
enza are  found,  and  then  follows  an  interesting 

63 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

consequence:  The  secretion  passes  into  the  pus 
stage  several  days  before  it  would  so  pass  when 
Nature  is  let  alone.  Observe  now  a  strange  fact : 
If  only  one  such  treatment  be  given,  the  pus  (very 
small  in  quantity  with  very  few  germs  in  it) ,  con- 
tinues to  form  for  some  weeks,  and  in  some  cases 
does  not  finally  disappear  for  two  or  three  months. 
But  if  several  such  treatments  be  given,  say  five 
or  six,  on  successive  days,  or  on  alternate  days,  the 
pus  stage  is  never  reached  at  all,  or,  if  reached, 
lasts  only  a  few  hours,  less  than  twenty-four  in 
some  cases,  and  the  germs  disappear  from  the 
secretions  with  almost  startling  suddenness,  the 
patient  remaining  entirely  without  symptoms  in 
the  interval. 

OSTEOPATHY  ABSORBS  INFECTIONS 

These  remarkable  facts  are  known  to  several 
osteopaths  in  practice  who  have  drawn  from  them 
only  another  proof  of  the  old  theory  on  which 
their  practice  has  been  for  years  based — that 
osteopathic  treatment  aborts  infection  by  increas- 
ing the  natural  resistance  of  the  body  faster  than 
is  the  rule  with  Nature  when  it  is  left  alone. 

But  such  an  abortion  of  influenza  is  only  a  type 
of  the  working  out  of  this  therapy  in  infections 
other  than  influenza,  and  we  discuss  the  matter 
here  only  to  bring  before  the  public  one  scientific 
phase  of  osteopathy  out  of  many. 

These  facts  of  influenza — in  common  with  the 
facts  of  almost  all  other  diseases — prove  that  the 
body  has  normally  a  considerable  amount  of 
resistance  (antibodies)  to  influenza.  Some  in- 
dividuals can  not  acquire  influenza  at  all — they 

64 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

are  perfectly  immune,  have  an  excess  of  anti- 
influenza  bodies  in  their  blood  and  tissues ;  others 
have  less,  are  slightly  susceptible  to  influenza; 
others  are  highly  susceptible;  a  few  (especially 
aged  persons)  have  scarcely  any  resistance  at  all, 
and  die  as  a  result  of  their  inability  to  produce  the 
antibodies  in  sufficient  quantity  to  kill  the  germs 
and  neutralize  the  toxins.  And  there  is  excellent 
scientific  reason  to  believe  that  even  many  of 
these  aged  persons  could  be  saved  by  osteopathy 
if  treated  early  in  the  beginning  of  the  invasion. 
All  bound  up  in  these  facts  of  immunity  is  the 
principle  of  "vaccines"  and  their  uses  in  mod- 
ern therapy  and  prevention  of  disease.  What  are 
vaccines,  how  are  they  used,  what  success  have 
they  had,  and  how  does  osteopathic  treatment 
compare  with  them  in  results?  Also,  how  does 
osteopathy  compare  in  its  results  with  the  results 
secured  by  serum  treatment? — for  vaccines  and 
serums  are  two  different  things,  and  should  not 
be  confused,  as  they  are  continually  confused  in 
the  mind  of  the  layman. 

VACCINE  EXPERIMENTS 

The  word  "vaccines"  has  no  special  reference 
at  all  to  the  practice  of  vaccination  for  smallpox. 
The  principle  of  the  two  things  is  precisely  the 
same,  but  in  modem  usage  when  the  word  "vac- 
cines" is  used  the  "vaccine  virus"  for  the  pre- 
vention of  smallpox  is  not  meant  at  all.  The  word 
"vaccine"  and  the  word  "vaccination"  were  used 
originally  because  the  virus  against  small  pox  was 
grown  in  cows.  (The  Latin  word  "vacca"  means 
in  English  "cow.")   We  can  explain  the  nature  of 

65 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

vaccines  and  serums,  whether  used  for  the  pur- 
pose of  curing  or  preventing  disease  by  discussing 
influenza  in  this  regard,  because  what  would  be 
true  of  influenza  would  be  true  of  any  other  infec- 
tion. 

If  a  vaccine  cure  for  influenza  were  possible,  it 
could  be  done  in  this  way  only:  Some  of  the 
bacilli  of  influenza  would  be  taken  from  the  nose 
or  throat  of  a  person  infected  with  a  very  virulent 
germ  of  the  disease,  and  these  germs  would  be 
grown  in  what  is  called  a  medium  by  bacteri- 
ologists. Each  of  these  minute  organisms  will 
divide  in  two  every  twenty  minutes  or  so,  so  that 
in  a  short  time  countless  billions  of  them  could 
be  had  for  use.  The  germs  are  easily  killed  by 
heat  of  a  certain  degree  and  after  killing  the 
germs  in  that  way,  they  would  be  suspended  in  salt 
solution,  and  then  several  millions  of  the  dead 
bacilli  in  salt  solution  could  be  injected  into  the 
blood  of  the  person  with  influenza.  These  dead 
germs  would  be  supposed  to  do  in  the  body  what 
the  toxin  from  the  living  ones  growing  in  the 
patient's  nose  and  throat  does — ^that  is,  make  anti- 
bodies faster  than  the  natural  infection  can  make 
them.  In  that  case  the  body  would  be  stimulated 
to  increase  its  resistance  in  excess  of  the  natural 
increase,  and  the  reaction  would  win  the  day  over 
the  living  germs  already  growing  in  the  body. 
All  vaccines  are  based  on  this  principle;  but  it 
should  be  said  that  no  success  whatever  has  been 
found  in  any  attempt  to  make  a  vaccine  for  influ- 
enza ;  and  the  same  thing  can  almost  be  said  with 
truth  for  other  infections.    A  vaccine  made  and 

66 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

administered  in  this  way  would  have  no  effect 
whatever  upon  influenza,  and  there  is  therefore  no 
vaccine  cure  even  claimed  for  this  disease. 

A  serum  for  influenza  could  be  made  by  infect- 
ing an  animal  (horse  or  sheep)  by  injections  of 
living  influenza  germs,  or  by  the  injection  of  the 
toxins  from  a  culture  growth  of  the  germs,  and 
then  injecting  the  serum  of  the  animal  into  the 
body  of  the  influenza  patient.  Such  a  serum,  or 
such  a  vaccine  could  be  injected  alone,  or  such  a 
serum  and  vaccine  could  be  injected  simultaneous- 
ly in  the  hope  of  causing  the  body  to  react  with  the 
production  of  enough  influenza  antibodies  to  cause 
the  disease  quickly  to  disappear.  And  yet  no  suc- 
cess at  all  has  been  had  by  such  methods  with 
influenza.  Theoretically,  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand why  this  is  so.  Theoretically  all  infections 
should  yield  quickly  to  vaccines  or  to  serums,  or 
to  both ;  but  practically  hardly  any  infections,  or 
other  diseases,  do  actually  yield  to  vaccines  or 
serums.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
animals  used  for  many  of  these  experiments  are 
quite  susceptible  to  the  germs  employed. 

And  it  should  be  said  that  theoretically  it  is 
just  as  hard  to  understand  why  influenza  and 
other  infections  can  be  and  are  destroyed  by 
osteopathic  treatment.  It  is  possible  that  stimula- 
tion of  nerves  actually  does  increase  antibodies 
against  disease  (once  the  antibody  production  has 
been  started  by  the  invasion  of  the  germ) ,  inas- 
much as  antibody  production  is  virtually  a  similar 
process  with  other  body  secretions,  as  those  of  the 
stomach,  liver,  salivary  glands,  or  other  glands, 

67 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

and  these  secretions  are  controlled  by  nerves.  The 
fact,  however,  remains  that  osteopathic  treatment 
(whether  because  it  adjusts  bony  lesions,  or  other 
tissue  lesions  in  the  backbone,  or  because  it  sim- 
ply stimulates  nerves)  really  and  truly  aborts  and 
stops  infections,  influenza  among  them.  Numer- 
ous osteopaths  claim  (to  their  fellow  practi- 
tioners) that  their  treatment  has  in  numerous 
cases  stopped  typhoid  fever,  pneumonia,  and  vari- 
ous other  infections,  and  even  the  most  con- 
servative osteopath  will  not  boldly  assert  that 
any  infection  is  known  to  be  exempt  to  this  pecu- 
liar result — ^the  mechanism  and  the  description  of 
which  have  been  discussed  in  the  first  pages  of 
this  paper  in  our  remarks  about  influenza. 

SERUM  TESTS  TO  IDENTIFY  VARIOUS  DISEASES 

The  osteopath  does  not  deny  the  principle  on 
which  serum  and  vaccine  therapy  is  based,  more 
than  he  denies  the  principle  on  which  are  based  the 
various  serum  tests  for  disease,  such  as  the  Widal 
reaction  for  typhoid,  the  Moro  and  other  reactions 
for  tuberculosis,  the  Wasserman  reaction  for 
syphilis,  the  Abderhalden  reaction  for  pregnancy, 
the  serum  test  for  cancer,  the  Schick  test  for 
diphtheria  antibodies,  and  other  tests  of  this  kind, 
which  the  whole  world  uses.  The  osteopath  does 
not  deny  the  principles  on  which  these  tests  and 
the  serum  and  vaccine  therapy  are  based,  because 
these  principles  are  his  very  own,  and  his  own 
results  are  in  all  probability  based  on  these  very 
principles  themselves,  although  osteopathic  results 
have  not  yet  been  studied  sufficiently  to  say  the 
last  word  upon  them.    There  has  as  yet  been 

68 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

neither  time  nor  opportunity  so  to  study  them. 
What  the  osteopath  holds  is  this:  that  the  great 
principle  of  immunity  has  not  been  found  gener- 
ally successful  in  the  hands  of  serum  and  vaccine 
therapists,  whereas  that  very  principle  has  been 
found  conspicuously  successful  in  the  hands  of 
A.  T.  Still  and  the  physicians  whom  his  principle 
and  therapy  have  inspired  and  actuated  for  at 
least  twenty  years  in  the  open  daylight  of  the 
actual  world. 

WHEN  OSTEOPATHIC  LESIONS  ARE  CAUSED 
BY  TOXINS 

What  is  now  to  be  stated  is  a  fact  familiar  to 
every  osteopath.  If  the  backbone  of  a  patient 
suffering  with  influenza  be  carefully  examined,  it 
will  be  found  that  the  muscles  that  house  and  pro- 
tect, and  that  operate  the  movements  of,  the  indi- 
vidual units  of  the  spine  (called  vertebrae  by 
anatomists)  are  tense,  stiff  and  hard,  this  unusual 
stress  having  been  brought  about  by  the  toxin  of 
the  influenza  germs;  whether  this  toxin  acts 
directly  on  the  muscles  themselves,  or  upon  the 
muscles  through  the  disturbance  in  the  nervous 
system  caused  by  the  toxin,  is  indifferent.  The 
fact  is,  that  this  backbone  muscle-equipment  is,  in 
common  with  other  muscles,  as  in  the  arms,  the 
legs,  the  abdomen,  the  chest,  and  other  parts  of  the 
muscular  skeleton,  made  tense  and  hard,  render- 
ing the  entire  spine  comparatively  rigid.  Now 
this  rigidity  in  other  parts  of  the  body  is  com- 
paratively unimportant,  whereas  in  the  spine  it 
is  all-important  and  critical,  because  the  great 
nervous  mechanism    (the  spinal   cord,   and   in- 

69 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

directly  the  brain  and  the  sympathetic  nerves, 
which  are  connected  with  the  spinal  cord  by  con- 
necting nerve  branches — the  rami  of  the  anato- 
mists), throws  out  from  between  each  pair  of  ver- 
tebrae two  great  trunk  nerves,  and  these  num- 
erous trunk  nerves  supply  the  entire  body  with 
nerve-power;  so  that  all  the  internal  organs,  the 
skin,  the  bones,  the  blood  vessels,  and  even  the 
nerves  themselves,  and  the  cells  of  the  blood,  no 
doubt,  are  directly  or  indirectly,  dependent  upon 
these  great  nerves  for  their  absolute  action,  even 
for  their  minute  chemical  work.  (A  pharmacolo- 
gist of  John  Hopkins  University  recently  claimed 
to  have  proved  that  the  activity  and  properties 
of  the  cells  that  float  in  the  blood  and  lymph 
streams  are  under  control  of  the  nerve  impulse.) 

A  MOVING  PICTURE  OF  THE  BODY'S  REACTIONS 

Here  in  influenza  (and  other  infections)  you 
have  the  master-tissue  of  the  body — the  nerves 
— pinched  and  pressed  upon  by  tissue-tension  at 
its  very  exit  from  the  great  central  power  house, 
the  spinal  cord,  and  tension  there  is  important. 
If  the  osteopath  lowers  the  tension  and  removes 
the  block  by  loosening  the  tissues  all  along  the 
line  from  skull  to  coccyx,  we  can  fairly  well  ac- 
count for  his  quick  results  in  influenza  in  the  fol- 
lowing way: 

1.  The  toxin  of  influenza  has  entered  the  blood, 
and  has  made  rigid  (among  other  muscles)  the 
muscles  of  the  spine, 

2.  The  body  cells  of  the  influenza  patient  are 
making  antibodies  as  fast  as  they  can. 

70 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

3.  But  their  work  of  making  antibodies  is 
interferred  with,  and  made  slow  by  the  fact  that 
the  cells  of  the  body  that  make  the  antibodies  are 
dependent  upon  nerve  impulses  as  stimuli  for  the 
work.  The  more  numerous  and  full  the  nerve 
impulses  they  receive  the  faster  will  they  func- 
tion. The  less  numerous  and  less  powerful  the 
fewer  antibodies  will  they  make. 

4.  If  the  tissue  tension  at  the  exits  of  the 
nerves  in  the  spine  (tension  produced  by  the 
toxin)  be  lowered,  the  nerve  impulses  will  flow 
freely  to  the  body  cells — ^to  all  body  cells. 

5.  This  will  leave  the  cells  free  to  make  anti- 
bodies as  fast  as  they  can  when  not  interfered 
with  in  any  way. 

6.  But  this  excess  of  antibodies  quickly  neu- 
tralizes the  toxin  and  indirectly  kills  the  germs. 

7.  But  this  being  the  case,  there  is  now  no 
longer  any  toxin  to  make  tense  and  keep  tense  the 
tissues  at  the  exits  of  the  spinal  nerves. 

8.  And  thus  the  entire  complex  of  symptoms 
of  influenza  vanishes  almost  instantaneously,  just 
as  if  a  vast  quantity  of  antibodies  had  been  in- 
jected into  the  blood  of  the  individual  at  one 
stroke. 

When  left  alone  the  work  of  antibody  making 
is  comparatively  slow,  because  normal  nerve  im- 
pulses are  partly  blocked  at  the  exits  of  the  spinal 
nerves  and  the  entire  normal  mechanism  of  the 
sympathetic  nervous  system  thrown  out. 

This  theory  sounds  good  and  true,  and  it  is  the 
theory  upon  which  the  osteopath  works  in  his 
treatment  of  many  infections. 

71 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

In  these  days  of  popularized  science  almost 
every  newspaper  syndicate  and  magazine  has 
some  writer  who  tries  to  interpret  the  lessons  of 
science  in  the  matter  of  health  to  the  public,  but 
in  none  of  these  have  we  as  yet  seen  a  clear 
exposition  (even  for  the  untechnical  public)  of  the 
facts  of  vaccine  and  serum  therapy,  such  as  is 
given  in  this  present  paper,  although  the  writers 
in  question  ought  to  know  how  to  do  it,  or  else 
cease  writing.  We  could  quote  instances  of  the 
frightful  abuse  of  that  kind  of  therapy  by  doctors 
of  the  theory  of  antibodies ;  but  what  is  a  sufferer 
to  do  when  he  finds  himself  advised  by  doctors 
who  do  not  know  sufficient  science  to  know  they 
are  playing  with  edged  tools  when  they  are  inject- 
ing disease  germs  (even  dead  ones)  or  commer- 
cial serums  into  the  bodies  of  human  beings? 
Fully  ninety  per  cent  of  the  "cures"  claimed  by 
medical  men  for  serums  and  vaccines  are  absolute 
folly,  as  the  best  bacteriologists  and  really  scien- 
tific immunologists  (wherever  found)  will  aver 
upon  question.  For  these  latter  men  have  no 
money  interest  in  the  matter.  The  osteopath, 
unlike  the  medical  man,  does  his  conscience  no 
violence  when  he  states  his  claim — which  is  not 
that  he  can  cure  all  the  ills  of  the  body,  but  that 
he  operates  on  the  most  soundly  scientific  bases 
known,  and  that  his  therapy,  while  founded  upon 
known  and  proved  pathological  physiology,  in  no 
manner  dangerously  complicates  Nature,  causing 
her  to  react  disastrously  because  of  a  fundamental 
misunderstanding  or  total  ignorance  of  the  pecu- 
liar manner  in  which  she  jumps. 

72 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

In  the  old  days  before  the  facts  of  immunity 
were  so  well  marked  out  and  studied  by  the 
great  Ehrlich,  Metchnikoff,  Bordet  and  others, 
"blood  poisoning"  was  a  term  that  was  loaded 
with  significance.  When  "blood  poisoning"  "set 
in"  hope  was  abandoned.  The  term  "blood 
poisoning"  is  not  generally  used  today  but  its 
shadow  still  hangs  over  us,  and  many  persons 
are  still  frightened  when  they  hear  the  name. 
With  good  cause,  too,  for  blood  poisoning  is  just 
as  bad  as  it  ever  was,  only  now  it  is  called  "highly 
virulent  streptococcus  septicemia." 

When  a  pathologist  uses  the  word  septicemia  he 
understands  (or  should  understand)  by  that 
term,  bacteria,  or  disease  germs,  of  any  kind  in  the 
blood.  The  term  bacteremia  is  preferred  by 
many.  Bacteremia  and  septicemia  mean  the  same 
thing.  Septicemia  of  various  kinds  may  be  de- 
structive or  "dangerous"  or  deadly,  or  mild  and 
ultimately  harmless,  according  as  the  germs  or 
their  toxins  are  virulent  and  the  patient  suscep- 
tible to  the  special  germ  involved.  The  old  "blood 
poisoning"  was  later  found  to  be  a  peculiar  germ 
called  streptococcus  pyogenes  (pus  making)  of  a 
highly  virulent  kind  universally  in  the  blood  and 
lymph  spaces  of  a  person  highly  susceptible  to 
that  peculiar  strain  of  the  germ.  Death  is  almost 
certain  in  such  a  case.  Now,  if  some  of  the  germs 
could  be  taken  from  the  body  of  such  a  patient, 
grown,  killed  and  injected  within  twenty-four 
hours,  the  patient  might  (theoretically)  be  saved 
by  the  excess  of  antibodies  liberated  by  the  pres- 
ence in  the  body  of  the  excess  of  the  germs  them- 

73 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

selves.  But  this  can  not  be  done.  Sufficient  germs 
can  not  be  grown  in  time  to  save  the  life  of  the 
person  infected.  The  germs  throw  out  a  toxin 
so  powerful  and  diffusible  that  the  individual's 
vital  tissues  are  destroyed  beyond  recovery  in 
forty-eight  hours.  And  yet  there  is  a  man  in  Lon- 
don who  claims  he  saves  cases  of  this  kind  by  this 
vaccine  method  right  along  in  forty-eight  hours. 
The  world's  bacteriologists  will  not  believe  him. 
It  is  hard  to  understand  how  it  can  be  done. 
Nobody  can  repeat  him.  We  have  no  record  that 
any  osteopath  has  ever  treated  a  case  of  that  kind, 
but  certainly  if  such  a  patient  would  early  secure 
an  osteopath,  on  the  principle  that  the  osteopath 
could  at  least  "do  no  harm,"  another  infection 
(and  an  essentially  wicked  one)  might  be  added  to 
the  growing  list  of  infections  which  of  late  years 
have  been  coming  more  and  more  under  osteo- 
pathic dominion. 

SCARLET  FEVER  AND  OTHER  INFECTIOUS 
DISEASES 

One  of  the  main  obstacles  that  has  helped  to 
bar  the  way  of  osteopathic  success  has  been 
the  timidity  of  patients  to  enlist  the  services  of 
the  osteopathic  doctor  in  diseases  such  as  scarlet 
fever,  infantile  paralysis,  smallpox,  "blood  poison- 
ing" of  the  virulent  type,  as  well  as  other  septice- 
mic pus-forming  infections,  such  as  those  due  to 
colon  bacillus,  staphylococcus  pyogenes  aureus, 
or  even  the  gonorrheal  germ,  which  causes  arth- 
ritis (inflammation  of  the  joints)  and  heart  insuf- 
ficiency. These  infections,  even  when  developed, 
have  been  palliated  by  osteopathic  treatment,  nor 

74 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

do  we  know  to  what  extent  completely  removed. 
Chronic  boils  and  pustulating  pimples  are  a  legiti- 
mate field  for  osteopathic  treatment,  the  principle 
in  all  these  infections  being  identical  with  the 
principle  laid  down  in  our  discussion  of  influenza 
at  the  beginning  of  this  paper. 

"Doctor,"  you  will  ask,  "do  you  claim  that  osteo- 
pathy can  cure  all  these  diseases  ?" 

DIPHTHERIA  ACCORDING  TO   OSTEOPATHIC 
TRADITION 

Our  answer  is  rational  and  fair.  It  is  this :  Of 
these  infectious  diseases  we  claim  that  we  can 
cure  vastly  more  cases — ^that  we  actually  do  cure 
vastly  more  cases  than  are  cured  by  vaccine  ther- 
apy, which  can  be  counted  upon  only  in  the  small- 
est number  of  cases.  As  for  the  serum  therapy,  it 
may  be  said  that  no  infection  has  been  found  at 
all  amendable  to  serum  treatment  save  diphtheria 
alone,  and  as  far  as  diphtheria  is  concerned  it 
should  be  said  that  osteopathic  tradition  from  the 
beginning  has  claimed  to  be  able  to  cure  diph- 
theria, and  that  numerous  osteopaths  positively 
refuse  to  use  the  diphtheria  antitoxin,  and  pre- 
fer to  rely  on  osteopathy  alone,  even  when  the 
patients  are  their  own  children. 


75 


OSTEOPATHY   IN   INFLAMMATORY 
DISEASES 

To  Dr.  A.  T.  Still,  founder  of  osteopathy,  be- 
longs much  if  not  most  of  the  credit  for  the 
modern  recognition  of  the  fact  that  inflammations 
are,  in  reality,  not  diseases  in  themselves,  but  the 
results  of  the  body's  attempt  to  kill  and  cast  out 
the  harmful  germs  which,  when  they  enter  the 
body  that  is  not  sufficiently  protected  against 
them,  produce  what  has  been  called  "disease".  In 
the  preceding  chapter  we  discussed  the  nature, 
effects  and  causes  of  infectious  diseases,  and  re- 
lated how  osteopathy  can  and  does  not  only  change 
and  relieve  these  diseases,  but  also  cures  them — 
that  is,  reduces  their  active  effects  to  zero. 

In  former  times  inflammations  were  themselves 
regarded  as  diseases,  and  naturally  enough,  when 
one  considers  how  very  little  was  known  concern- 
ing them.  All  true  inflammations  consist,  accord- 
ing to  the  ancient  definition  of  these  peculiar 
changes  in  the  tissues,  of  redness,  swelling,  heat 
and  a  certain  amount  of  pain  or  discomfort.  These 
were  regarded  as  the  "four  cardinal  signs"  of  an 
inflammation.  The  inflamed  part  became  red,  it 
was  swollen  as  compared  with  the  normal  state, 
it  was  hotter  (fever)  than  in  the  normal  state, 
and  there  was  always  pain — great  or  small  as  the 

76 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

case  may  be.  Now  in  so  far  as  the  inflammation 
was  regarded  as  a  disease — the  effort  of  the  old 
style  medicine  (the  healing  art)  was  naturally 
directed  against  the  inflammation  (not  against  the 
cause  of  it) — it  was  deemed  desirable  to  stop  the 
inflammation  or  "reduce"  it,  at  the  same  time  re- 
ducing the  fever  that  accompanied  it.  It  had  been 
found  that  if  blood  in  generous  quantities  be  with- 
drawn from  the  veins,  the  fever  in  a  diseased  body 
would  be  reduced.  Therefore,  it  was  believed 
that  bleeding  was  a  good  remedy  against  inflam- 
mation and  it  was  commonly  practiced  by  all  the 
old  doctors.  The  professors  of  the  healing  art 
gave  up  their  old  method  of  bleeding  only  after  a 
most  bitter  fight.  But  even  after  exhaustively 
bleeding  the  patient  had  been  abandoned  as  a 
therapy,  it  was  still  believed  that  it  was  the  in- 
flammation that  constituted  the  essentials  of  the 
disease.  In  recent  years,  however,  this  belief  has 
vanished,  and  the  intelligent  doctor  of  today 
knows  that  an  inflammation,  wherever  found,  is 
only  the  reaction  of  the  body  against  the  invading 
germs,  or  other  destructive  agents. 

WHY  INFLAMMATION  CAUSES  PAIN 

Why?  Because  inflammation  primarily  con- 
sists of  an  unusual  quantity  of  blood  being  drawn 
to  the  part.  Hence,  the  heat,  the  swelling,  the 
redness  and  the  pain ;  for  the  unusual  swelling  of 
the  inflamed  part  causes  pressure  on  the  delicate 
nerve  endings  in  the  part,  and  this  pressure 
causes  pain. 

Now  when  this  unusual  quantity  of  blood  in 
the  engorged  and  enlarged  blood  vessels  of  the 

77 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

part  flows  back  into  the  general  circulation,  and 
the  lymph  that  has  exuded  from  the  engorged 
blood  vessels  into  the  tissues  of  the  inflamed  part 
flows  out  into  the  lymph  vessels — all  signs  of  the 
inflammation  disappear  and  the  part  has  been  re- 
stored to  its  nonnal  condition. 

Nature  accomplishes  this  reaction  in  ways  pecu- 
liar to  the  peculiar  pathogenic  germ  that  is  caus- 
ing the  trouble.  Sometimes  pus  is  formed,  as  in 
boils  or  carbuncles ;  sometimes  fibrin  is  formed,  as 
in  pneumonia,  diphtheria,  and  other  fibrin-form- 
ing inflammations;  but  whatever  the  peculiar  re- 
action may  be,  it  is  always  based  on  the  principle 
that  the  blood  and  the  cells  of  the  blood  and  of 
other  tissues  aim  first  to  conteract,  destroy  and 
remove  the  direct  causes  that  are  destroying  the 
tissues.  And  when  this  has  been  done,  repair  of 
the  destroyed  parts  naturally  follows.  All  these 
facts  are  now  well  known  to  pathologists,  but  such 
knowledge  is  of  comparatively  recent  growth,  and 
there  is  no  therapy  that  is  based  on  these  facts  so 
firmly  and  scientifically  as  osteopathy. 

DR.  STILL  EARLY  PERCEIVED  THAT  THE 
BLOOD  CURES 

To  A.  T.  Still  belongs  the  credit  for  having 
been  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  to  per- 
ceive the  great  natural  laws  that  underlie  the  facts 
as  we  write  them.  For  what  was  Dr.  Still's 
argument?  It  was  this:  Nature  to  cure  the 
"disease"  sent  blood  in  unusual  quantity  to  the 
part,  thus  producing  an  inflammation.  When, 
now,  the  cure  had  been  worked  out  by  the  inflam- 
mation, the  symptoms  subsided  (that  is  the  in- 

78 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

flammation)  and  the  tissue  became  nearer  normal, 
if  not  quite  so.  But  since  this  is  nature's  own 
way  of  curing,  the  use  of  any  method  which  would 
send  blood  into  the  part,  in  greater  quantity  than 
nature  itself  could  send  it  into  the  part,  would 
assist  nature  and  hasten  the  cure,  or  actually  in- 
itiate a  cure,  where,  if  left  alone,  nature  would 
never  of  itself  be  capable  of  sending  in  enough 
blood  to  do  the  business,  with  disaster  or  death  in 
prospect  as  a  consequence. 

Osteopathy,  therefore,  teaches  that  an  inflam- 
mation is  nature's  own  method  of  curing  certain 
diseases  called  infections;  and  it  further  teaches 
that  by  artificially  increasing  the  quantity  of  blood 
flowing  into  an  infected  place,  natural  results  can 
be  obtained  in  greater  quantity,  and  much  more 
quickly,  than  unassisted  nature  herself  can  obtain 
them.  This  teaching,  from  the  standpoint  of  pure 
science,  as  this  subject  has  been  illuminated  in 
recent  years,  is  scientifically  unassailable — and  it 
works ! 

But  osteopathy  does  more  than  increase  the 
inflammatory  reaction  of  the  blood  in  infections. 
We  say  that  it  must  do  more,  otherwise  there 
could  be  no  really  scientific  way  of  accounting  for 
the  peculiar  results  which  are  the  common  exper- 
ience of  osteopathic  treatment  in  certain  infec- 
tious diseases  as  the  grip,  pneumonia  and  typhoid 
fever,  when  the  poisons  (toxins)  made  by  the 
germs  are  diffused  throughout  all  the  circulation, 
and  hence  through  all  the  tissues  of  the  body. 

Let  us  glance  at  a  common  infection  that  pro- 
duces an  inflammation  typical  of  the  pathogenic 

79 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

germ  involved,  and  also  typical  of  the  location  in 
the  body  where  the  germs  are  growing.  This  in- 
fection is  known  as  furuncle  or  in  common  lan- 
guage boils.  What  is  a  boil  ?  It  used  to  be  believed 
by  the  old  doctors  (and  is  still  believed  by  the 
uniformed)  that  boils  were  an  indication  of  "im- 
purity of  the  blood"  and  that  this  "badness"  or 
"impurity  of  the  blood",  was  "coming  out"  in  the 
boils.  Hence  the  old  school  of  drug  doctors  had 
certain  "remedies"  not  only  for  boils  but  for  all 
other  eruptions  on  the  skin,  especially  eruptions 
that  had  pus  in  them,  and  these  remedies  were 
called  by  the  old  doctors  "depurants"  or  remedies 
that  cleared  the  blood  of  pus  (such  as  sarsaparilla 
or  other  "purifiers"). 

THERE  IS  NO  PUS  IN  THE  BLOOD 

In  the  word  "depurant"  the  syllable  "pur"  is 
the  same  word  as  "pus",  so  that  depurants  de- 
pusified  the  blood — took  the  pus  out  of  the  blood, 
according  to  this  delusion.  The  theory  was  that 
the  pus  which  came  out  was  originally  in  the 
blood,  else  it  could  not  come  out!  Now  there  is 
no  pus  in  the  bood,  but  there  are  certainly  in  the 
blood  many  millions  of  white  cells  which,  when 
they  increase  in  number  and  gather  by  the  millions 
in  some  certain  place,  and  are  killed  by  the  disease 
germs,  which  they  take  into  themselves  to  rid  the 
body  of  them  and  their  poisons,  form  pus.  Pus 
in  reality  consists  chiefly  of  the  dead  white  cells 
(the  leucocytes,  phagocytes)  that  have  lost  their 
lives  in  defending  the  body  from  the  invading 
germs.    An  inflammation  that  forms  pus  is  called 

80 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

a  purulent  inflammation ;  and  a  boil,  or  furuncle, 
as  it  is  called  by  the  pathologists,  is  one  type  of 
purulent  inflammation  presenting  phases,  or 
characters,  peculiar  to  itself  because  of  the  place 
where  it  is  growing,  that  is,  in  the  skin.  Boils 
are  caused  directly  by  the  presence  in  the  deep 
part  of  the  skin,  or  under  the  skin,  of  a  germ 
called  staphylococcus  pyogenes  aureus — staphy- 
lococcus, because  the  little  spherical  germs  grow 
in  the  form  of  bunches;  pyogenes  because  this 
germ  draws  to  the  neighborhood  in  which  it  is 
multiplying  the  white  cells  of  the  blood  that  when 
dead  form  pus;  and  aureus  because  the  colonies 
of  the  germ,  when  grown  in  pure  cultures  outside 
the  body  on  a  medium  such  as  gelatin,  or  agar,  in 
a  test  tube  or  other  vessel,  are  golden  in  color, 
aureus  meaning  "golden"  and  nothing  else.  There 
are  several  different  varieties  of  staphylococci,  but 
this  particular  one  is  the  most  commonly  con- 
cerned. Now  this  germ  enters  the  body  by  passing 
down  the  microscopic  space  surrounding  a  hair. 
The  individual  germs  are  so  small  as  to  be  dis- 
tinctly visible  only  under  very  high  powers  of  the 
microscope,  say  a  magnification  of  about  1,000 
diameters  of  the  object  itself.  The  individual 
germ  is  scarcely  larger  than  about  1-25000  of  an 
inch — a  size  so  small  as  to  surpass  the  power  of 
the  imagination.  It  can  therefore  have  an  easy 
passage  in  the  smallest  crevices,  or  chinks,  or 
holes  in  the  skin,  and  it  actually  makes  its  way 
into  the  deeper  parts  of  the  skin  in  this  way. 

Once  in  it  finds  itself  surrounded  by  the  richly 
nourishing  fluid  that  nourishes  the  skin — ^the  so 

81 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

called  lymph  of  the  body,  that  passes  out  through 
the  walls  of  the  tiny  capillaries  that  convey  the 
blood  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  tissues.  Here 
the  germ  finds  a  "medium"  of  growth  and  nourish- 
ment finer  and  richer  than  any  artificial  medium 
the  bacteriologist  can  make  in  his  laboratory,  and 
the  staphylococcus  begins  to  multiply !  In  multi- 
plying it  throws  off  from  its  inconceivably  minute 
body  the  excretions  of  its  life  growth,  and  these 
excretions  are  poisonous  to  the  tissues.  But  they 
do  not  diffuse  easily,  so  that  the  area  of  infection 
is  more  or  less  limited  to  the  locality  of  the  or- 
iginal entrance  point.  The  tissue  cells  die  and 
digest  themselves,  and  the  liquid  substance  pro- 
duced by  the  auto-digestion  diffuses  around  the 
place  to  the  nearest  blood  vessels  and  attracts  to 
the  vicinity  the  white  cells  which,  when  they  ar- 
rive at  the  spot  where  the  germs  are  multiplying, 
ingest  or  engulf  the  bacteria  and  are  killed  by  the 
germs.  But  the  germs  themselves  are  killed  in 
their  own  turn  by  the  white  cells  and  in  this  way 
the  pus  is  formed. 

HOW  A  BOIL  IS  CAUSED 

Meanwhile,  the  poisonous  substances  made  by 
the  bacteria  and  the  dying  tissues  have  caused  a 
powerful  flow  of  blood  to  the  part,  by  causing  the 
calibre  of  the  little  vessels  to  open  out  wide,  letting 
in  the  blood  by  simple  mechanical  law  of  hydro- 
statics, so  that  previously  to  the  pus  formation 
the  part  becomes  highly  swollen,  red  and  hot — in 
other  words  inflamed,  and  down  through  the 
center  of  the  inflamed  area  is  a  plug  of  yellowish 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

solid  material,  the  "core"  of  the  boil.  This  core 
consists  of  dead  skin,  tissue,  not  yet  all  dissolved, 
filled  with  white-yellowish  pus  cells.  The  boil  may 
"break"  out  on  the  surface  of  the  skin — if  the  in- 
flammation be  rapidly  formed — and  with  this  re- 
lease of  the  pus  the  germs  are  also  carried  out  of 
the  pocket  and  the  injury  heals  rapidly  leaving 
only  a  slight  scar.  If  the  development  of  the  in- 
flammation be  slower,  however,  the  "core"  is 
formed,  the  subsequent  repair  is  slower  also,  and 
the  scar  will  be  larger  and  deeper.  But  it  is  clear 
from  what  has  been  said  that  the  more  rapidly 
formed  the  inflammation,  the  more  rapid  will  be 
the  healing  process.  And  the  rapidity  of  the  en- 
tire proceeding  will  be  determined  largely  by  the 
quantity  of  blood  drawn  to  the  part  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  infection. 

Now  if  osteopathic  treatment  be  given  for  a 
boil  at  the  beginning  of  the  inflammation,  the  ex- 
cessive quantity  of  blood,  over  and  above  the 
natural  quantity  which  is  sent  into  the  part  by  the 
treatment,  will  hasten  the  inflammation  in  an  ar- 
tificial way,  and  hence  such  an  infection  can  be 
shortened  in  its  course  by  just  that  much.  And 
this  has  occurred  in  the  treatment  of  boils  by 
osteopathy. 

HOW  THE  BLOOD  WORKS  ITS  CURE 

We  can  partly  explain  these  interesting  facts  in 
this  way:  A  certain  amount  of  blood  is  needed 
to  neutralize  the  poisons  and  destroy  the  life  of  a 
certain  number  of  germs  in  the  tissues.  If  these 
germs  did  not  multiply  in  number  a  given  quan- 

83 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

tity  of  blood  would  do  the  work  in  a  given  time. 
But  the  number  of  germs  is  constantly  growing, 
and  inasmuch  as  nature  itself  can  supply  only  a 
limited  amount  of  blood  in  a  given  time,  the  in- 
flammation must  grow  larger  as  the  number  of 
germs  increase,  and  it  must  grow  larger  at  a 
higher  rate  than  the  rate  at  which  the  number  ot 
germs  grows ;  else  the  multiplication  of  the  germs 
could  never  be  stopped.  The  entire  time  required 
by  nature  to  do  the  work  is  generally — ^when  the 
germs  are  growing  in  the  skin — ^about  ten  days; 
after  which  the  inflammation  subsides  because  the 
germs  have  been  almost  all  killed.  But  it  can  be 
seen  that  if  the  rate  at  which  the  blood  flows  into 
the  part  be  increased  beyond  the  natural  rate,  the 
inflammation,  just  because  it  is  increased  out  of 
its  natural  proportion,  should  be  correspondingly 
shortened;  and  this  is  the  actual  fact. 

But  it  would  appear  from  this  that  there  must 
be  something  in  the  blood  that  kills  the  germs. 
What  is  this  thing? 

To  answer  this  question  we  must  direct  the  at- 
tention of  the  reader  to  certain  substances  in  the 
blood  called  opsonins  by  their  discoverer.  Sir  Alm- 
roth  E.  Wright,  of  London.  Opsonins  are  sub- 
stances in  the  blood  which  have  a  chemical  affinity 
for  bacteria — ^the  germs  of  disease — including 
staphylococcus  pyogenes  aureus.  These  sub- 
stances unite  with  the  bacteria  so  that  the  white 
cells  can  engulf  them,  thus  killing  them  and  re- 
moving them  from  the  tissues  and  forming  pus. 
If  the  blood  of  an  individual  be  rich  in  the  opsonin 
against  this  particular  germ  that  causes  boils,  the 

84 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

few  germs  that  enter  the  skin,  or  under  it,  are 
at  once  changed  by  their  union  with  this  special 
opsonin  and  the  bacteria  are  now  engulfed  by  the 
leucocytes. 

The  presence  in  the  blood  of  these  peculiar  sub- 
stances called  opsonins,  and  their  action  in  the 
way  described,  constitutes  the  immunity  of  the 
individual  against  the  special  germs  against  which 
the  opsonins  are  directed.  Upon  these  facts  is 
based  the  great  phagocytic  theory  of  immunity, 
originated  by  the  late  Professor  Elie  Metchnikoff, 
of  Paris,  who  died  recently,  and  who  has  al- 
ways been  regarded  by  osteopaths  with  a  certain 
reverence  as  having  in  a  considerable  degree  ex- 
plained by  scientific  experiments  the  remarkable 
effects  of  osteopathic  treatment  in  certain  infec- 
tious diseases.  Osteopaths  have  also  had  much 
repect  and  admiration  for  Sir  Almroth  E.  Wright, 
the  Englishman  who  discovered  and  proved  the 
presence  in  the  blood  of  the  opsonins,  and  thus 
entirely  vindicated  the  original  work  of  the  great 
and  powerful  Metchnikoff.  For  the  osteopath  can 
see  clearly  how  a  local  infection  such  as  boils,  if 
we  assume  the  presence  in  the  blood  of  the  opsonin 
bodies  (which  are  as  truly  "antibodies"  as  are  the 
other  antibodies  so  widely  discussed  today),  can 
be  abated  and  cured  by  causing  the  blood  in  larger 
quantities  (and  hence  the  opsonins  in  the  larger 
quantities)  to  flow  through  the  infected  part. 

There  is  another  interesting  fact  about  the  re- 
sults of  osteopathic  treatment  in  the  case  of  boils, 
when  the  osteopathic  doctor  attacks  this  disease 

85 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

in  time,  that  is,  early  after  the  appearance  of  the 
first  redness  and  swelling. 

Almost  invariably  whenever  a  boil  appears  it 
is  followed  by  several  new  ones.  Boils  as  a  general 
rule  come  in  crops.  Why  is  this  the  fact?  Be- 
cause when  the  germ-containing  pus  breaks  out 
on-the  skin,  the  germs  are  smeared  over  the  unaf- 
fected skin,  and  some  of  these  germs,  being  still 
alive  and  virulent,  make  their  way  into  the  skin, 
or  under  it,  through  the  spaces  alongside  of  the 
hairs  of  the  skin — ^just  a  repetition  of  the  original 
infection.  This  spread  of  the  infection  will  go  on 
until  the  skin,  all  around  the  original  site  of  the 
infection,  has  become  immune  by  the  natural  pro- 
duction of  the  anti-staphylococcic  opsonin.  The 
entire  infection  will  now  clear  up — if  the  individu- 
al's body  can  make  the  opsonsin  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity. When  the  reverse  is  true  we  have  what  is 
called  "Chronic  boils". 

WHY  OSTEOPATHY  PREVENTS  A  SECOND  CROP 

But  if  the  patient  has  had  osteopathic  treatment 
in  time,  if  blood  has  been  thrown  in  liberal  quan- 
tities into  the  part,  the  excess  of  the  specific  op- 
sonin thrown  into  the  blood  causes,  apparently,  a 
certain  peculiar  change  in  the  germs  by  which 
they  are  rendered  less  virulent,  or  more  easily  and 
quickly  engulfed  by  the  soldier  cells  of  the  blood, 
and  hence  when  the  original  boil  breaks,  and  these 
germs  now  enter  the  skin  alongside  the  hairs,  the 
germs  are  quickly  disposed  of  by  the  phagocytes 
of  Metchnikoff,  and  no  second  boil  appears.  The 
infection  does  not  spread.    These  things  occur  also 

86 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

when  the  patient,  for  one  or  another  reason,  has 
been  taking  osteopathic  treatment,  and  becomes 
infected  by  this  peculiar  germ.  Only  one  boil  ap- 
pears and  its  course  is  quickly  and  mildly  run, 
with  comparatively  little  pain  and  no  reinfection. 
Only  one  explanation  of  these  peculiar  facts  can  be 
given,  and  that  is  that  osteopathic  treatment  not 
only  makes  full  use  of  the  quantity  of  opsonin 
naturally  in  the  body,  but  also  actually  increases 
the  total  quantity  of  this  opsonin  naturally  circu- 
lating in  the  blood. 

HEALTHFUL  BLOOD  NATURE'S  BEST  GERMICIDE 

Now  this  is  the  very  result  which  Sir  Almroth 
E.  Wright  has  attempted  to  produce  by  his  so- 
called  vaccines,  or  dead  staphylococci,  which  he  in- 
jects into  the  blood  of  the  patient  suffering  with 
boils,  after  having  grown  them  from  germs  taken 
from  the  patient's  own  lesions.  The  world's  bac- 
teriologists and  immunologists  all  agree  in  the 
verdict  that  Wright's  claims  must  be  exaggerated, 
for  no  one  but  Wright  himself  has  been  able  to 
secure  the  results  claimed  by  him.  It  is  highly 
significant  that  osteopathy  here,  as  elsewhere  in 
the  infectious  diseases,  seems  quite  competent  to 
do  the  very  things  which  the  vaccine  therapy  the- 
oretically should  be  able  to  do  and  cannot.  It  is 
not  to  be  argued  from  this  that  Sir  Almroth  E. 
Wright  is  wrong  in  his  experiments  with  the  op- 
sonins, for  he  certainly  has  made  a  prime  dis- 
covery which,  theoretically  should  be  able  to  work 
cures  in  infections  from  these  peculiar  germs,  but 
which  fails  in  all  but  a  comparatively  few  cases. 

87 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

Neither  Wright  nor  any  other  scientific  investi- 
gator (outside  of  the  osteopaths)  has  tried  the 
effect  on  the  work  of  opsonins  by  flushing  the 
parts  with  larger  quantities  of  natural  blood  than 
the  normal  inflammation  contains.  Osteopathy, 
by  washing  the  inflamed  part  with  increasing 
streams  of  normal  blood  actually  brings  larger 
supplies  of  normal  opsonin  to  the  part  than  could 
possibly  flow  to  it  normally ;  but  it  is  also  more 
than  probable  that  the  total  amount  of  this  anti- 
body is  increased  by  the  treatment. 

VIRULENT  TONSILLITIS 

Somewhat  similar  phenomena  appear  when 
virulent  tonsillitis  is  treated  at  the  beginning  of 
the  infection  by  thorough  osteopathic  manipula- 
tion. That  the  virulence  of  bacteria  (germs)  can 
be  sensibly  lessened,  and  even  quite  destroyed,  by 
osteopathic  treatment,  need  not  be  doubted  today ; 
and  the  time  is  not  far  away  when  scientific  re- 
search will  clear  up  much  of  the  mystery  that 
now  puzzles  osteopaths  in  the  results  they  secure 
in  the  treatment  of  infectious  diseases. 

Tonsillitis  in  varying  degrees  of  virulence  can 
be  caused  by  several  entirely  different  germs,  but 
typical  painfully  virulent  tonsillitis,  accompanied 
by  systemic  fever,  is  nearly  always  (la  grippe 
aside)  due  to  the  growth  in  the  tonsils  of  a  pus- 
making  germ  called  streptococcus  pyogenes 
(streptococcus  because  the  germs  grow  in  the 
form  of  chains). 

Not  long  ago  a  culture  of  streptococcus  pyo- 
genes was  made  from  the  throat  of  a  child  who 

88 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

had  an  intense  inflammation  of  the  tonsil  accom- 
panied by  high  temperature.  The  parents  of  the 
child  had  called  in  an  osteopath  at  the  very  first 
appearance  of  the  attack.  The  temperature 
(fever)  was  marked  and  the  tonsil  typical.  But 
the  osteopath  (fortunately  for  the  child  if  un- 
fortunately for  the  experiment)  had  given  the 
patient  two  thorough  treatments  before  taking  the 
"swab"  from  the  throat.  After  the  first  treatment 
the  fever  had  reduced  almost  to  normal,  and  after 
the  subsequent  treatment  the  tonsils  had  been  dis- 
tinctly relieved  and  the  fever  almost  all  removed. 
The  germs  were  still  there  in  quantity,  but  when 
their  virulence  was  tried  out  in  a  laboratory  ex- 
periment, the  germs  were  found  to  be  quite  harm- 
less. Now  it  is  only  rational  to  conclude  that  the 
treatment  had  directly  to  do  with  the  destruction 
of  the  virulence  of  this  germ,  for  such  a  tonsillitis 
— if  let  alone — ^would  normally  run  its  usual 
course,  and  recovery  take  place  only  after  the 
body  had  immunized  itself  against  the  germ  by 
an  increase  in  the  anti-streptococcic  bodies  in  the 
blood.  Theoretically  a  vaccine  should  do  what 
this  osteopath  did,  but  practically  such  a  result  is 
rare  in  vaccine  therapy.  The  laws  underlying 
these  remarkable  results  of  osteopathic  treatment 
will  certainly  some  day  be  established  by  scientific 
osteopathic  research,  but  in  the  meantime  the  os- 
teopathic practitioner  can,  in  the  interest  of  his 
patients,  assume  that  his  own  theory  of  results  is 
ample  to  account  for  them,  and  go  on  treating  in- 
fectious diseases  in  the  proved  conviction  that  his 
peculiar  form  of  mechano-therapy  as  worked  out 

89 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

by  Dr.  A.  T.  Still  actually  and  practically  does 
what  serum  and  vaccine  therapy  should  invari- 
ably do  but  unfortunately  does  not. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  results  in  the  oste- 
opathic treatment  of  infections,  familiar  from  of 
old  to  all  practitioners  and  even  students  of  this 
art,  is  the  result  in  acute  and  chronic  dysentery. 
Dysentery  (diarrhoea)  is  most  frequently  caused 
by  the  growth  in  the  intestine  of  one  of  the  sev- 
eral types  of  germs  producing  the  typical  flux 
from  the  intestine.  Pressure  on  the  spine 
(in  a  way  peculiar  to  osteopathic  theory  and 
practice)  quickly  stops  dysentery  when  caused 
by  these  germs.  The  treatment  is  familiarly 
known  to  osteopathic  doctors  as  "inhibition".  Dr. 
A.  T.  Still  early  demonstrated  the  entire  curability 
of  dysentery  by  this  method  in  quickly  restoring 
to  normal  a  number  of  children  afflicted  in  this 
way.  His  early  success  has  been  followed  up  ever 
since  that  time  by  the  members  of  his  school  who 
have  come  to  regard  this  kind  of  dysentery  as  a 
simple  matter  for  the  osteopath  to  cure. 

DRUGS  DO  NOT  ACT  LIKE  OSTEOPATHY 

What  is  the  drug  treatment  for  dysentery? 
There  are  two  methods  opposite  in  theory  and 
practice.  One  is  to  clean  out  the  intestine  with  a 
purgative,  the  other  is  to  paralyze  the  intestine 
by  drugs  such  as  chloroform.  Capsicum  (red 
pepper)  and  chloroform  will  often  suddenly  stop 
the  movement  of  the  intestines  in  dysentery,  but 
never  as  quickly  as  osteopathic  inhibition.  The 
chloroform  may  act  as  an  inhibition  of  the  growth 

90 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

of  the  germs,  but  this  inhibition  is  not  at  all  what 
is  meant  by  the  osteopath  when  he  uses  that  word. 
Osteopathic  inhibition  is  temporary  stoppage 
of  the  movement  of  the  intestine,  and  this  stop- 
page is  entirely  free  from  the  after  effect  which 
follows  the  use  of  the  drug.  Permanent  recovery 
quickly  ensues,  and  in  some  way  the  multiplica- 
tion of  the  germs  in  the  intestine  is  stopped.  Pos- 
sibly this  growth  is  stopped  by  the  accumulation 
of  their  own  secretion  products  in  the  intestine, 
but  more  probably  by  the  production  in  the  blood 
of  the  Intestines  of  substances  that  escaping  into 
the  intestines  do  the  damage  to  the  germs  there. 
It  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  results  of  osteo- 
pathic treatment  in  dysentery  unless  some  back 
bone  lesion  is  assumed  to  exist  even  where  it  is 
invisible;  but  the  certainty  of  the  results  is  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  and  interesting  of  the  in- 
numerable interesting  facts  of  the  osteopathic 
therapy. 

INCREASING  THE  BODY'S  RESISTANCE 

When  we  say  that  osteopathic  treatment  re- 
duces the  virulence  of  disease  germs,  we  can  only 
mean  one  thing,  and  that  is  that  osteopathic 
treatment  increases  the  body's  resistance  to 
the  germs  in  question  once  the  germs  are  in  and 
multiplying.  No  definite  experimental  proof 
has  ever  been  established  that  the  body's  re- 
sistance to  disease  germs  can  be  increased  by 
osteopathic  treatment  before  an  infection  is  in- 
troduced into  the  body.  That  is  to  say,  it  has  not 
yet  been  experimentally  proved  that  osteopathic 

91 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

treatment  can  so  increase  the  body's  resistance 
to  all  germs  that  this  treatment  can  be  absolutely 
regarded  as  a  preventative  of  infection,  as  for  ex- 
ample when  vaccine  for  typhoid  fever  prevents  the 
individual  treated  from  acquiring  typhoid  fever. 
And  yet,  pending  such  experimental  evidence,  the 
osteopath  is  warranted  in  assuming  that  general 
osteopathic  treatment  actually  does  accomplish 
some  such  body  change,  for  we  know  as  a  matter 
of  fact  that  osteopathic  treatment  vastly  increases 
those  normal  reactions  of  the  body  which  are,  in 
fundamental  physiology,  physiologically  similar 
to  the  body's  reactions  against  infectious  germs 
and  their  toxins. 

WHY  OSTEOPATHY  REFRESHES  AFTER  FATIGUE 

For  example,  an  osteopathic  treatment  when 
one  is  tired  and  exhausted  after  a  day's  hard  work 
will  wonderfully  refresh  the  body  and  restore  its 
vigor,  producing  a  physiological  reaction  very 
nearly  equivalent  to  a  good  night's  sleep.  This 
is  a  fact  familiar  to  all  osteopaths,  many  of  whom 
are  eager  to  get  such  a  treatment  for  themselves 
whenever  a  friendly  fellow  practitioner  is  near 
by  and  agreeable.  Now  what  does  this  reaction 
mean?  If  it  means  anjrthing  it  means  that  the 
osteopathic  manipulation  of  the  spine  actually 
does  what  sleep  will  do  for  a  similarly  tired  man. 
And  sleep,  it  is  known,  refreshes  and  strengthens 
the  body  in  all  its  parts,  and  in  all  its  cells,  by 
neutralizing  the  poisons  released  by  the  work  of 
the  body's  cells  in  their  activities  during  the  wak- 
ing state.    The  nerve  cells,  the  muscle  cells  and 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

all  the  other  cells  (but  principally  these  two  mas- 
ter tissues)  work,  and  in  working  throw  out  of 
themselves  into  the  blood  stream  certain  chemical 
waste  substances  which  react  on  the  nerve  cells 
as  toxins — the  toxins  of  fatigue.  During  sleep  the 
body  cells  manufacture  antibodies  that  neutralize 
the  fatigue  toxins,  and  the  nerve  cells  therefore 
feel  fresh  again.  Simple  feeding  of  the  nerve  cells 
is  not  sufficient.  These  fatigue  substances  must 
be  neutralized  and  several  hours  are  necessary  to 
do  it — ^hours  during  which  no  further  fatigue  tox- 
ins are  made  by  muscle  and  nerve.  But  osteopa- 
thic treatment  will  encompass  after  30  minutes 
what  otherwise  requires  several  hours  of  sleep. 
Thus  does  osteopathic  treatment  stimulate  the 
body  to  the  rapid  production  of  antibodies  against 
normal  toxins  made  by  the  normal  activities  of 
the  normal  boy's  cells. 

Now  the  toxins  of  disease  are  toxins  not  made 
by  the  body's  own  cells,  but  by  the  foreign  cells 
called  disease  germs,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  say 
that  the  effect  of  osteopathic  treatment  on  the 
normally  tired  body  is  regulated  by  the  same 
physiological  law  that  underlies  the  production  of 
antibodies  to  the  toxins  of  disease. 


98 


VI 


OSTEOPATHY  IN  THE  GROUP  OF  SO- 
CALLED  RHEUMATIC  DISEASES 

Rheumatism  is  a  disease  as  old  as  history,  and 
in  ancient  times  men  resorted  to  mineral  springs 
for  the  relief  of  the  pains,  the  twinges,  the  swel- 
lings, the  soreness,  the  sudden  sharp  stabs,  the 
acute  disabling  inflammation,  the  chronic  pain  and 
deformity — all  of  which  were  lumped  together  in 
the  ancient  medical  mind  and  labeled  in  gross 
rheumatismus.  Perhaps  under  no  one  name  have 
so  many  widely  divergent  and  radically  different 
disorders  been  classified  as  under  this  old  term 
rheumatism. 

NEARLY  ALL  PAINS  ONCE  CALLED  RHEUMATIC 

Until  yesterday  one  may  say,  "rheumatism"  was 
perhaps  the  most  mysterious  of  diseases  that  tor- 
tured with  strong  pain  or  only  just  annoyed  its 
victim.  For  in  this  many-headed  disease  all  de- 
grees of  symptoms  were  recorded,  from  the  smal- 
lest, most  insignificant  "pain"  in  the  end  of  the 
toe  or  finger,  which  came  and  vanished  so  quickly 
that  the  individual  could  not  be  certain  it  was 
there  at  all,  to  long  drawn  out  chronic  torture  that 
inflamed,  enlarged  and  deformed  the  joints  of  the 
body  with  such  racking  and  exhausting  pain  that 
one  might  well  wonder  how  the  victim  could  re- 
main sane  in  mind. 

94 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

"Rheumatism,"  as  this  panorama  of  pain  was 
called  from  of  old,  was  studied  in  modern  times  by 
the  best  physiologists,  bacteriologists  and  path- 
ologists in  the  world  without  result.  It  was  be- 
lieved to  be  due  to  some  chemical  disturbance  or 
unbalance  in  the  body  in  which  uric  acid,  or  lactic 
acid,  or  some  other  acid,  was  not  destroyed  in  the 
body,  or  was  poorly  eliminated,  as  is  the  known 
case  with  uric  acid  in  gout.  But  this  theory  was 
long  ago  abandoned.  It  was  believed  to  be  due  to 
diet,  but  no  proof  of  this  belief  was  ever  brought 
forward.  It  was  more  recently  believed  to  be  due 
to  the  growth  in  the  body  of  a  microscopic  germ, 
called  by  the  man  who  believed  he  had  found  it, 
micrococcus  rheumaticus.  But  bacteriologists  in 
general  were  never  convinced  that  this  particular 
germ  was  the  cause  of  rheumatism.  The  mystery 
of  rheumatism  promised  never  to  be  solved,  and  so 
it  was  that  the  old  name  lingered,  and  the  doctors 
continue  to  prescribe  anodynes,  that  is,  drugs  that 
that  dulled  pain — opiates — not  because  the  an- 
odynes could  cure  or  were  believed  to  cure  rheu- 
matism, but  because  so-called  rheumatism  was  ac- 
companied by  pain,  and  anodynes  would  dull  pain 
of  any  kind.  Dosing  the  "rheumatic"  patient  with 
anodynes — or  pain  killers — helped  to  kill  the  pa- 
tient, to  ruin  the  heart,  to  make  the  suffer  suffer 
more.  And  so  the  use  of  anodynes  in  rheumatism 
came  to  be  regarded  as  dangerous,  and  the  wise 
doctor,  for  the  patient's  own  good  preferred  to 
allow  the  rheumiatic  person  to  suffer  rather  than 
to  risk  killing  him  with  drugs. 

95 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

But  the  mystery  of  rheumatism  has  been  re- 
cently and  finally  cleared  up  by  the  discovery — 
which  has  been  for  several  years  dawning  on  the 
scientific  mind — ^that  what  has  been  called  rheu- 
matism is  not  one  single  disease,  that  is,  a  disease 
due  to  one  unvarying  cause,  but  a  great  number 
of  symptoms  caused  by  several  different  causes, 
the  one  thing  common  to  all  being  the  various 
kinds  of  pain.  Until  very  recently  we  used  to 
classify  rheumatism  into  several  kinds — inflam- 
matory rheumatism  (rheumatism  accompanied  by 
inflammation) ;  rheumatoid  arthritis  (which  was 
an  inflammation  of  the  joints  milder  than  articu- 
lar rheumatism  or  "like"  rheumatic  joints) ;  ar- 
ticular rheumatism  (in  which  the  joints  were 
swollen  and  the  pain  intense)  ;  muscular  rheuma- 
tism (when  the  pain  was  in  the  muscles) ;  neural- 
gic rheumatism  (in  which  the  pain  was  dull, 
chronic  and  distinctly  of  the  tooth-ache  variety) ; 
rheumatic  neuralgia  (in  which  the  pain  was  like 
that  of  the  no  less  mysterious  neuralgia,  mixed 
with  rheumatic  signs)  ;  neuritis  (which  resembled 
rheumatism  but  was  different  in  some  ways) ; 
sciatica  (pain  in  the  great  sciatic  region) ;  lum- 
bago (pain  in  the  lumbar  region  of  the  back)  ;  cer- 
tain symptoms  of  the  heart  (called  rheumatism 
of  the  heart) ;  similarly  of  the  stomach,  and  so  on, 
without  end. 

Only  a  short  time  ago,  it  was  believed  that  rheu- 
matism was  caused  by  the  entrance  into  the  body 
of  some  mysterious  germ  thru  the  tonsils;  and 
forthwith  it  became  the  fashion  for  people  to  have 
their  tonsils  removed   (by  a  rather  bloody  and 

96 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

distressing  if  simple  surgical  operation).  But 
even  this  last  stand  on  the  old  ignorant  basis  has 
now  been  abandoned,  and  it  has  been  seen  that 
while  one  of  the  troubles  that  was  labeled  rheu- 
matism can  and  does  come  in  by  way  of  the  tonsil, 
removing  uninfected  tonsils  is  a  rather  crude,  hit- 
and-miss  way  of  preventing  disease ;  is  rather,  an 
excellent  method  of  inviting  other  and  worse  dis- 
asters by  taking  away  the  natural  fortifications  of 
the  body  against  invading  organisms  of  many 
kinds. 

How,  then,  let  us  ask,  has  the  mystery  been 
cleared  up,  and  if  there  is  no  such  thing  in  reality 
as  rheumatism,  what  is  the  nature  of  the  many 
different  things  that  produce  in  the  body  the  vari- 
ous aches  and  pains,  swellings  and  tortures, 
t winches  and  "touches"  that  have  been  all  along 
thrown  together  and  labeled  rheumatism  from 
time  out  of  mind? 

WHEN  DUE  TO  ANATOMICAL  MAI^ADJUSTMENTS 

The  osteopathic  practitioner  of  five  or  ten  or 
twenty  years  experience  will  understand  much  of 
the  mystery  when  he  thinks  in  retrospect  of  the 
persistent  "rheumatisms"  he  has  cured — occasion- 
ally with  a  single  treatment.  Well  does  such  an 
osteopathic  practitioner  know,  and  well  has  he 
known  for  years,  that  an  enormously  large  pro- 
portion of  the  "rheumatism"  going  the  rounds  of 
the  human  race  was  and  is  anything  but  myster- 
ious, at  least  in  its  cause ;  for  every  such  a  prac- 
titioner has  seen  many  cases  of  "rheumatism" — 
cases  that  would  be  labeled  such  by  all  the  doctors 

97 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

in  the  world — which  were  caused  by  a  ridiculously- 
simple  slip  or  misplacement  or  strain  in  some 
joint  or  tissue,  the  results  of  which  were  not  al- 
ways so  simple  as  the  cause.  Such  cases  vary 
from  long  continued — nearly  incessant — pain  in 
a  hand,  a  foot,  an  entire  arm  or  leg,  in  both  arms 
or  legs,  in  the  breast,  in  the  entire  upper  part  of 
the  body,  or  in  the  entire  lower  part — from  such 
a  pain,  we  say,  to  intermittent  stabbings  and 
shootings  of  pain,  which,  like  the  true  old  "rheu- 
matics" come  and  go  with  the  weather  and  with- 
out it.  But  give  the  required  adjustment,  and 
such  rheumatism  is  gone  for  good. 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  say  what  percentage  of 
"rheumatisms"  are  caused  by  just  such  lesions. 
It  is  likewise  impossible  to  say  how  many  cases  of 
neuritis,  in  which  the  entire  upper  body,  the  trunk, 
or  large  areas  of  it,  are  due,  if  not  to  bony  lesions 
in  the  back,  then  to  hardened  and  tense  muscles 
along  the  spine,  for  the  osteopath  is  familiar  with 
such  cases  also,  and  has  removed  the  ill  perma- 
nently by  loosening  up  the  joint-binding  tissues  of 
the  spine. 

Here,  then,  is  one  great  source  of  many  of  the 
pain-complexes  known  in  the  past  as  rheumatism 
— anatomical  disturbances,  often  minute  in  their 
nature.    Let  us  illustrate. 

INTERCOSTAL  NEURALGIA 

The  wife  of  a  certain  well  known  national 
statesman  had  "rheumatism"  in  the  breast  and 
arms  for  years — rheumatism  it  was  called  by 
some ;  a  kind  of  neuralgia  by  others ;  a  neuritis  by 
others;  and  some  of  her  many  doctors  had  reser- 

98 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

vations  in  their  minds  that  it  might  be  that  pe- 
culiar thing  called  angina  pectoris,  or,  in  common 
English,  "breast-pang".  She  finally  came  into  the 
hands  of  an  osteopath  who  found  a  twisted  rib 
which  was  plainly  to  be  seen  on  a  front  view,  or 
distinctly  felt  by  drawing  the  fingers  across  the 
side  of  the  chest.  The  cure  was  made  by  adjusting 
the  rib  into  line  with  its  fellows,  and  the  myster- 
ious "rheumatism"  of  years  standing  vanished, 
and  never  recurred.  You  can  not  blame  this  lady 
for  being  a  "comfirmed  believer"  in  osteopathy, 
can  you  ? 

BRACHIAL  NEURITIS 

A  young  man  for  years  was  partially  disabled 
by  pain  in  the  right  arm — pain  that  came  and 
went  suddenly,  that  gave  him  token  of  changes  in 
the  weather  (at  least  so  he  himself  was  con- 
vinced), and  pain  that  was  clearly  rheumatic. 
Also  pain  that  was  clearly  a  "neuritis"  and  was  so 
diagnosed  time  and  again.  He  was  a  portly  man 
and  a  good  liver,  and  he  was  for  many  years  a  vic- 
tim of  the  diet  regimen — starving  himself  to  get 
the  "poisons"  out  of  his  system.  An  osteopath 
found  one  of  his  ribs  out  of  joint — had  been  out 
of  joint  for  years — and  slipped  it  back  into  its 
proper  adjustment.    Cure — perfect. 

PROMISCUOUS  TONSIL  SLAUGHTER 

A  form  of  "rheumatism"  much  more  common 
than  is  generally  supposed,  called  bursitis  when 
its  nature  has  been  recognized  by  osteopaths,  con- 
sists of  pain  in  or  near  a  joint  and  extending 
down  the  limb,  as  pain  in  one  of  the  shoulders, 

99 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

with  involvement  of  the  arm,  often  accompanied 
by  sensations  of  numbness  in  the  arm  and  fingers. 
Bursitis  is  an  inflammation  of  a  bursa,  or  tissue 
pad  found  in  the  joints — a  kind  of  water  cushion 
for  the  joint.  This  inflammation  can  be  caused 
by  physical  strain  from  accident  and  is  due  in  a 
vast  majority  of  cases  to  some  such  accidental 
wrench  or  strain,  as  described.  During  the  past 
few  years  several  osteopaths  who  were  themselves 
almost  disabled  by  such  "rheumatisms"  have  been 
perfectly  restored  by  osteopathic  treatment,  and 
today  such  cases  are  almost  invariably  not  only 
relieved  but  absolutely  cured  by  making  proper 
adjustments.  Until  osteopathy  was  found  avail- 
able in  these  cases  the  only  remedy  was  the  sur- 
geon's knife,  by  which  the  bursa  itself  was  re- 
moved, thus  leaving  the  arm  more  or  less  dis- 
abled. Shoulder  and  arm  "rheumatisms",  per- 
sistent in  their  character,  are  frequently  found  to 
be  due  to  this  so-called  bursitis  which  in  all  proba- 
bility is  not  caused  at  all  by  disease  germs  but 
by  simple  mechanical  tissue  lesions. 

A  DISABLED  ARCH  OF  THE  FOOT 

Another  similar  simple  example  was  found  in 
an  elderly  lady  who  for  years  suffered  with  "rheu- 
matic pains"  in  her  foot.  Once,  long  ago,  she  had 
turned  a  bone  in  her  instep,  and  the  joint,  as  is 
common  in  such  cases,  would  slip  in  and  out  with 
stress  in  walking.  The  rheumatism  would  "come 
and  go  suddenly  as  by  magic",  to  use  the  phrase 
of  the  "confirmed  rheumatic".  She  had  avoided 
red  meats,  acid  foods,  and  other  supposed  aggra- 

100 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

vators  of  the  rheumatic  tendency  for  years,  and  to 
no  purpose.  An  osteopath  was  found  who  under- 
stood the  sources  of  the  pain,  and  subsequently 
would  invariably  "cure"  the  rheumatic  attack  by 
a  simple  deft  rotation  of  the  joint. 

SCIATICA  FROM  A  SLIPPED  PELVIS 

Another  case  was  that  of  a  professional  man 
who  for  many  years  had  been  tortured  with  severe 
"sciatic  rheumatism"  and  who  had  gone  the  "usual 
round  of  the  doctors",  and  was  cured  in  the  usual 
way — ^by  osteopathy.  It  was  found  that  this  man 
had  a  twisted  pelvis,  which,  when  it  had  been 
"twisted"  back  again  into  its  normal  bony  rela- 
tions, by  osteopathic  technique,  was  seen  to  be 
the  cause  of  the  entire  trouble.  Such  instances 
could  be  multiplied  many  times  over  with  as  many 
variations  according  to  the  determination  of  the 
dislocation,  the  stress,  the  tensity  of  the  tissues 
involved,  in  various  parts  of  the  body,  every  osteo- 
path being  able  to  cite  numerous  cases  of  his  own, 
in  which  his  own  experience  has  taught  him  that 
these  anatomical  causes  lie  at  the  root  of  innumer- 
able examples  of  that  great  pathological  octopus 
labeled  in  the  museum  of  disease  as  rheumatism. 
This  patient  had  long  worn  red  flannel  undergar- 
ments, summer  and  winter,  in  the  belief  that  the 
conservation  of  his  body  heat  would  relieve  him 
of  his  pain,  and  had  resorted  to  the  use  of  various 
drugs  and  other  remedies,  and  hygienic  measures 
in  general,  but  of  course  could  get  no  help  from 
such  methods  of  treatment  as  long  as  the  lesion  in 

101 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

the  pelvis  was  there  to  disturb  the  normal  rela- 
tions of  the  great  nerve  and  the  tissues  it  supplied. 

Another  form  of  pain,  commonly  called  rheu- 
matism, and  most  often  neuritis,  is  caused  by- 
slight  displacement  of  one  of  the  vertebrae  of  the 
neck — frequently  that  next  to  the  skull  itself.  The 
slight  pressure  resulting  gives  the  patient  a 
chronic  "headache",  or  neuralgia",  the  real  cause 
of  which  is  not  always  recognized.  But  if  the 
case  is  carefully  studied  and  the  lesion  reasoned 
out,  its  correction  is  reasonably  sure,  and 
adjustment  of  the  bone  back  into  its  normal  bear- 
ing will  cause  the  pain  to  disappear,  with  what 
relief  to  the  patient  those  who  have  suffered  or 
are  suffering  in  this  way,  can  easily  imagine. 

But  there  are  causes  of  "rheumatism"  other 
than  imperfect  articulations  or  hardened  tissues, 
and  here,  too,  the  osteopath  has  a  method  of  ra- 
tional therapy  unique  and  helpful,  more  so  than 
any  other  known  method,  altho  these  other  causes 
are  more  strictly  classifiable  as  diseases.  We 
refer  to  pain  called  rheumatic,  or  neuritic,  or 
neuralgic,  that  are  caused  by  disease  germs,  or 
their  poisons,  in  the  blood  and  the  tissues  or  by 
so-called  auto-intoxications,  which  will  give  one 
"rheumatic"  twinges  and  sharp  pains  in  any  or 
in  all  parts  of  the  body. 

INFECTIOUS  VARIETIES  OF  "RHEUMATISM" 

To  these  classes  of  rheumatisms  belongs  that 
severe  and  most  striking  disease  called  articular 
rheumatism  which  is  frequently  followed  by 
heart  lesions  more  or  less  serious  according  as  the 

102 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

disease  germ  is  highly  or  mildly  virulent  and  the 
patient's  blood  and  tissues  susceptible  to  the  germ 
in  high  or  low  degree. 

It  was  in  such  cases  of  intensely  painful  "arti- 
cular rheumatism"  that  the  bacteriologists  sought 
for  their  causative  germ,  with  the  discovery,  or 
what  was  thought  to  be  the  discovery,  of  the  mi- 
crococcus rheumaticus.  The  cause  of  this  disease 
is  now  definitely  known,  and  it  is  a  germ  men- 
tioned in  former  numbers  of  this  magazine,  name- 
ly, streptococcus  pyogenes,  the  same  germ  that 
causes  virulent  tonsillitis,  inflammation  of  the 
valves  and  muscle  wall  of  the  heart,  abscesses  in 
various  parts  of  the  body,  erysipelas,  and  that 
deadly  thing  called  "blood  poisoning"  of  the  most 
virulent  type. 

INFLAMMATORY  "RHEUMATISM" 

In  rheumatism  of  this  kind  the  germ  finds 
lodgment  perhaps  in  the  tonsil,  and  from  the 
tonsil  works  its  way  into  the  blood  and  be- 
comes what  pathologists  and  bacteriologists 
call  a  "septicemia".  Reaching  the  joints, 
the  germs  grow  in  the  fluids  bathing  the 
Jtissues  and  cause  there  the  "reaction"  of  the  body 
to  this  germ,  for  the  same  reaction  occurs  no  mat- 
ter where  the  germ  may  be  growing  in  the  body. 
This  reaction  is  decidedly  inflammatory,  the 
joints  swell  up  because  of  the  exudation  from  the 
engorged  blood  vessels,  the  delicately  sensitive 
nerve  endings  in  the  tissues  are  pressed  upon  by 
the  swelling,  and  this  pressure  causes  the  intense 
pain  which  is  characteristic  of  this  disease,  when 

103 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

the  invading  germ  is  highly  virulent  and  the  pa- 
tient's body  is  highly  susceptible  to  the  growth  of 
the  germ  itself.  If  the  organism  be  not  so  highly 
virulent,  or  the  resistance  of  the  individual  be 
comparatively  high,  the  inflammatory  reaction  in 
the  joints  will  be  correspondingly  mild,  and  the 
"rheumatism"  not  so  painful  or  marked.  It  will 
be  seen  therefore  why  this  particular  disease  may 
vary  from  a  very  slight  attack  which  passes  away 
quickly  if  the  patient's  resistance  be  high  and  the 
germs  easily  be  overcome  and  their  toxin  neutra- 
lized to  an  "attack"  that  may  last  for  months  and 
exhaust  the  patient's  strength  with  pain. 

OSTEOPATHY  BUILDS  UP  THE  BODY'S  OWN 
RESISTANCE 

In  such  cases  of  "rheumatism,"  whether  mild 
or  virulent,  the  germ  and  its  toxin  not  only  attack 
the  joints  of  the  body  in  general,  but  also  the 
joints  in  the  spine,  causing  considerable  tissue  in- 
jury and  consequent  tensity  along  the  spine  and 
interfering,  much  or  little,  as  the  case  may  be, 
with  the  spinal  nerves  and  their  control,  indirectly 
thru  their  connections  with  the  sympathetic 
nerves,  of  those  cells  of  the  body  that  are  con- 
cerned with  the  making  of  the  antibodies  that 
neutralize  the  toxins  of  the  germ  and  cause  the 
germs  to  be  removed  from  the  tissues.  This  prin- 
ciple of  osteopathy  applies  in  so-called  articular 
rheumatism  also,  and  osteopathy  can  be  depended 
upon  to  facilitate  and  to  accelerate  the  body  re- 
actions which  ultimately  (though  more  slowly) 
enable  the  body  to  recover  from  the  disease  by  the 

104 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

use  of  its  own  mechanism  of  resistance.  Treating 
the  infected  spine  of  such  a  patient  by  the  use 
of  osteopathic  technique  is  an  absolutely  sound 
procedure,  grounded  on  thoroly  scientific  theory 
and  practice,  and  results  vindicate  the  osteopath's 
contention  that  the  spinal  tissue  lesion  in  in- 
fectious diseases  (when  such  lesion  is  actually 
caused  by  the  infection  in  the  first  place)  is  the 
block  to  nature  in  her  attempt  to  overcome  the 
infection  by  supplying  the  remedy  which  nature 
itself  has  planted  in  the  body.  Furthermore,  os- 
teopathic treatment  is  the  only  available  treat- 
ment in  this  infection,  no  serum  or  vaccine  having 
ever  been  found  which  can  do  the  work,  altho 
vast  effort  has  been  made  in  this  direction. 

"RHEUMATIC"  HEART 

One  of  the  unpleasant  results  of  so-called  articu- 
lar rheumatism,  or  rather  one  of  the  results  of 
the  general  infection  which  is  the  cause  of  that 
disease,  is  a  lesion  of  the  heart  that  is  generally 
known  as  "rheumatic  heart",  altho  it  is  easily 
seen,  in  view  of  what  we  have  already  said  about 
rheumatism  in  general,  that  the  word  "rheu- 
matic" here  has  really  no  definite  meaning 
whatever.  The  bacteria  (streptococcus  pyogenes) 
being  carried  into  the  blood  stream,  and  by  it  to 
the  joints,  also  frequently  settle  on  the  heart 
valves,  and  are  likewise  carried  into  the  small 
blood  vessels  that  nourish  the  muscle  wall  of  the 
heart,  plugging  up  the  vessels,  the  toxin  causing 
the  vessel  wall  to  thicken  and  harden,  thus  pro- 
ducing an  arteriosclerosis  in  the  organ,  and  at 

106 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

the  same  time  destroying  a  certain  amount  of  the 
muscle  tissue  of  the  heart  itself.  This  kind  of  a 
heart  is  the  typical  "rheumatic  heart",  and  it  can, 
in  common  with  the  inflammation  of  the  joints 
in  this  disease,  be  prevented  to  a  high  degree  by 
osteopathic  treatment  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
infection.  Patients  with  articular  rheumatism, 
in  justice  to  themselves,  should  call  in  an  osteopath 
early  in  their  infection,  no  matter  what  their  med- 
ical doctor  may  say  about  it,  for  the  medical  doctor 
professedly  can  do  nothing  for  such  a  patient  but 
call  daily  and  look  on,  prescribing  the  usual  an- 
odynes, usually  with  danger  to  the  patient's  heart, 
and  advising  chloroform  liniment  or  other  lini- 
ments, which  are  at  best  the  most  superficial  kind 
of  makeshift.  One  of  the  last  procedures  in  these 
cases  is  for  the  doctor  to  advise  the  calling  in  of 
some  masseur,  Swedish  or  other,  at  a  stage  of  the 
disease  when  the  slightest  touch  is  condign  punish- 
ment for  the  patient,  and  then,  when  all  things 
fail,  the  patient  is  reluctantly  told  to  try  Hot 
Springs,  Mudlavia,  or  some  oher  popular  cure  for 
rheumatism,  and  the  patient  is  carried  out  on  a 
stretcher  exhausted  in  body,  mind  and  pocket- 
book. 

THE  EARLIER  OSTEOPATHY  IS  APPLIED, 
THE  BETTER 

To  how  many  sufferers  is  this  story  familiar? 
And  how  much  of  this  expense  can  be  saved 
will  be  known  only  when,  with  popular  enlighten- 
ment and  education,  the  victim  of  streptococcus 
pyogenes    (in  the  form   of  "articular  rheuma- 

106 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

tism"),  learns  to  avail  himself  of  the  virtue  of 
scientific  osteopathic  treatment  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  the  disease. 

Long  before  bacteriologists  and  pathologists 
found  and  identified  many  of  the  different  germs 
chat  cause  disease,  osteopaths  knew  that  by  their 
own  peculiar  manipulation  and  adjustment  of  the 
bones  and  softer  tissues  of  the  spine  they  could 
stop  different  infections,  reduce  temperature,  and, 
in  short,  work  a  cure  of  the  disease.  Thus  the 
osteopath  is  not  only  the  sole  doctor  in  cases  of 
the  so-called  rheumatisms  directly  caused  by  an- 
atomical lesions,  but  is  also  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant factors  in  the  treatment  of  rheumatisms, 
neuritis,  neuralgias,  lumbagos  and  sciaticas  due 
to  infections  wherever  they  may  be. 

WHEN  DUE   TO   PUS   POCKETS 

Aside  from  articular  rheumatism  so  called, 
there  are  many  more  or  less  severe  pains  and  in- 
flammations generally  labeled  rheumatism,  caused 
by  pus-forming  germs  that  find  lodgment  and 
grow  in  various  parts  of  the  body,  often  in  the 
mouth  of  the  roots  of  the  teeth,  or  in  the  tonsils, 
or  in  other  parts  of  the  body  such  as  the  kidney, 
for  example.  The  pus-forming  bacteria  that  are 
the  main  offenders  in  this  respect  are  staphylococ- 
cus pyogenes  aureus  and  streptococcus  pyogenes — 
the  identical  germ  that  causes  articular  rheuma- 
tism—  (pyogenes  meaning  "pus-making",  and  pus 
meaning  dead  white  cells  of  the  blood  that  have 
lost  their  lives  by  ingesting,  or  taking  in,  the 
germs  and  killing  them,  in  the  body's  attempt  to 

107 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

get  rid  of  these  invading  germs  in  a  natural  way) . 
Pockets  of  these  bacteria  with  their  accompany- 
ing pus,  may  continue  in  some  corner  of  the  body 
for  years,  and  produce  their  toxins  which  in  turn 
cause  the  pains  of  so-called  rheumatism,  strong 
pains  if  the  organism  be  virulent  and  the  patient 
highly  susceptible,  mild  pains  if  the  reverse  be 
true.  In  such  cases  it  is  of  course  needful  to  re- 
move the  pus  pockets  by  operation  on  or  even  ex- 
traction of  the  teeth,  if  the  genus  be  growing 
there,  or  by  operation  on  the  tonsil  if  that  be  the 
place  of  growth,  and  the  removal  of  the  germs  will 
be  followed  by  spontaneous  recovery  if  all  the 
centers  of  germ  growth  be  removed. 

PULLING  TEETH  RUTHLESSLY  ANOTHER  ERROR 

But  great  care  in  diagnosis  is  necessary  before 
these  things  be  done,  and  the  patient  should  not  be 
deprived  of  teeth  or  tonsils  without  a  thoroly  sci- 
entific examination.  The  removal  of  the  teeth  as  a 
cure  for  "rheumatic"  pains  has  run  riot  of  late, 
and  many  a  man  and  woman  has  had  good  and  use- 
ful teeth  extracted  for  the  cure  of  some  localized 
chronic  pain,  without  deriving  the  slightest  benefit 
from  such  a  serious  operation.  In  localized  "rheu- 
matic" pain  it  is  mainly  the  anatomical  lesion — 
the  strain,  the  tensity,  the  mal-adjustment  of  tis- 
sue and  bone,  that  should  be  looked  for  first  and 
above  all  things.  After  this  it  is  well  enough  to 
figure  upon  pus  pockets  in  the  vicinity — pain  in 
the  leg  from  pelvic  infection,  and  so  on.  General- 
ized pains  most  frequently  are  the  indicators  of 
long  continued  centers  of  pus-making  infection, 

108 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

But  the  doctor  who  would  have  the  teeth  extracted 
from  every  patient  with  general  or  local  "rheuma- 
tism" of  any  kind,  is  a  dangerous  man  to  be  at 
large,  and  too  many  of  that  kind  of  doctors  are 
licensed  to  practice  medicine  by  unenlightened 
law. 

WHEN  RESULTING  FROM  INTESTINAL 
PUTREFACTION 

Another  source  of  "rheumatic  pains"  not  yet 
discussed  and  a  most  common  and  important  one, 
is  what  is  known  as  intestinal  auto-intoxication. 
This  consists  of  the  manufacture  of  poisonous 
substances  by  the  decomposition  of  undigested 
food  in  the  intestine,  the  "food"  consisting  of 
protein,  that  is  meat,  eggs,  or  fish.  Such  decom- 
position, or  putrefaction,  is  encompassed  by  the 
germs  that  normally  grow  in  the  intestine  by  the 
inconceivable  billions.  One-third  of  the  dried  con- 
tents of  the  large  intestine  consists  by  weight,  of 
bacteria,  but  these  bacteria  are  normally  harmless. 
The  heavy  meat  eater  acts  as  a  purveyor  of  food 
for  these  germs  in  the  intestine,  and  large  num- 
bers of  persons  are  diet-sick  in  this  way.  Re- 
duction of  meat  in  the  diet  to  a  reasonable  degree 
will  do  more  to  cure  rheumatisms  from  this  cause 
than  any  other  kind  of  treatment ;  but  this  method 
of  dieting  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  old-time 
tradition  that  red  meats  are  bad  for  the  rheumatic 
patient.  Dieting  in  that  way  will  not  do  much 
to  cure  or  relieve  anything. 

What  used  to  be  called  rheumatic  neuralgia  of 
the  muscles  of  the  abdomen  in  the  vicinity  of  the 

109 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

stomach  has  in  numerous  cases  been  found  to  be 
what  is  called  "flatulent  indigestion".  For  some 
obscure  reason — in  some  cases  maybe  a  nervous 
one — the  lining  of  the  intestine  does  not  secrete 
its  normal  juices,  or  secretes  them  in  too  small  a 
quantity.  There  is  hence  a  consequent  deficiency 
in  power  of  the  secretion  of  the  great  digestive 
organ,  the  pancreas,  owing  to  the  very  malfunc- 
tioning of  the  intestine.  The  result  is  that  the 
starches  do  not  digest  in  the  intestine,  fermenta- 
tion follows,  the  intestine  is  charged  with  gas,  and 
the  pressure  causes  pain  in  the  region  of  the  stom- 
ach, and  you  have  rheumatic  neuralgia,  or  neu- 
ralgic rheumatism,  for  it  is  all  one,  so  far  as  the 
real  disorder  is  concerned.  Mineral  waters  and 
other  laxatives  and  purgatives  fail.  Many  of  such 
cases  are  directly  traceable  to  osteopathic  lesions 
in  the  spine  which  can  be  corrected  with  subse- 
quent relief  and  disappearance  of  all  symptoms; 
and  when  the  disorder  is  due  to  reflex  tensity  of 
the  softer  tissues  of  the  spine,  correction  of  these 
accomplish  the  same  result. 

GONORRHEAL  ARTHRITIS 

Another  disease  that  was  formerly  called  rheu- 
matism, and  a  disease  unfortunately  by  no  means 
rare,  is  due  to  an  escape  into  the  blood  of  the  germ 
called  gonococcus,  which  causes  by  its  primary 
growth  in  the  urinary  passages,  the  venereal  dis- 
ease called  gonorrhea.  This  disease  is  most 
frequently  acquired  by  immoral  living,  and 
communicated  to  innocent  ones  by  the  guilty. 
Perhaps  some  will  say  that  such  disease  should  be 

110 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

discussed  only  in  the  consultation  room  of  the  phy- 
sician, and  it  is  this  very  false  "modesty"  that  has 
accomplished  the  physical  wreckage  and  in  thous- 
ands of  cases  the  death  of  the  unfortunate  wife  of 
the  libertine  husband.  Popular  knowledge  in 
these  things  is  now  being  widely  cultivated  and 
spread  abroad  under  the  name  "sexual  hygiene", 
and  vast  suffering  and  social  error  might  have 
been  saved  in  the  past  had  every  young  woman, 
and  the  parents  of  every  young  woman  possessed 
such  information  on  these  subjects  as  would  have 
safe-guarded  the  innocent  victim  of  an  unwise 
marriage. 

And  yet  even  with  the  most  careful  scrutiny  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  guard  the  innocent  or  en- 
able the  uninfected  to  guard  against  deception 
when  dealing  with  an  unconscionable  and  ignorant 
man.  Such  men  themselves  are  the  main  victims 
of  this  disease,  and  it  is  in  many  ways  a  pity  that 
disastrous  consequences  do  not  as  a  rule  follow  the 
usual  infection.  Then  perhaps  this  social  evil 
would  stop  or  prevent  itself.  This  germ  does  not 
only  itself  produce  pus  centers  in  the  body,  but 
it  also  paves  the  way  for  the  entrance  into  the 
body  of  other  pus-making  organisms  which  work 
the  final  disaster,  disabling  or  causing  the  death 
of  the  infected  person  by  a  mixed  infection.  But 
when  this  germ  enters  the  blood  and  settles  out 
for  its  further  growth  in  the  joints  of  the  body  it 
produces  what  has  in  recent  times  been  called  gon- 
orrheal arthritis,  or  an  inflammation  of  the  joints 
similar  in  some  ways  to  articular  rheumatism,  and 

111 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

in  others  different  from  that  disease.  Frequently 
in  such  cases  the  germs,  like  streptococcus  pyo- 
genes, settle  on  the  heart,  causing  the  heart  lesion 
called  endocarditis,  altho  endocarditis  can  be,  and 
usually  is,  caused  in  other  and  less  disastrous 
ways.  This  kind  of  rheumatism  has  been  treated 
T^y  vaccines  but  not  with  the  success  which  would 
be  desirable,  and  osteopathy  has  been  found  prac- 
tical and  beneficient  in  these  cases,  as  it  has  been 
found  in  rheumatisms  of  other  kinds. 

RHEUMATOID  ARTHRITIS 

Another  species  of  rheumatism,  common  in  per- 
sons who  have  passed  middle-age,  is  the  so-called 
"rheumatoid  arthritis",  an  inflammation  of  the 
joints,  which  often  produces  considerable  deform- 
ity, and  even  disablement,  in  many  cases  causing 
the  patient  to  become  more  or  less  crippled  and 
unable  to  move  about  or  use  the  hands  with  free- 
dom. In  all  chronic  cases  of  this  kind  there  is 
absolutely  no  treatment  which  yields  as  good  re- 
sults as  osteopathy.  Persons  whose  joints  were 
practically  clear  out  of  use,  have  been  relieved  in 
some  measure  by  manipulations  which  loosen  up 
to  a  considerable  degree  the  old  stiffness,  and  have 
been  restored,  in  a  measure,  to  the  use  of  their 
limbs.  When  osteopathic  treatment  can  produce 
such  gratifying  results  in  old  chronic  cases,  it  is 
most  rational  to  believe  that  this  infection  could 
be  handled  in  an  entirely  satisfactory  way  if  taken 
early  in  its  course. 

The  osteopathic  physician  will  be  careful  to  con- 
sider and  look  for  some  primary  source  of  the  in- 

112 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

fection  in  the  tonsils,  the  teeth  or  elsewhere,  for 
when  the  symptoms  in  the  joints  begin  to  appear, 
it  is  clear  there  is  some  source  of  infection  that 
has  been  at  work  for  some  time,  unperceived  by 
the  patient.  In  such  cases  it  is  well  to  have  x-ray 
shadowgraphs  made  of  the  teeth,  or  other  parts, 
to  locate  the  focus,  or  foci,  of  infection,  which 
can  be  removed  by  surgery — dental  or  other — ^and 
to  let  this  treatment  be  intelligently  followed  up 
by  osteopathic  therapy,  which  will  help  the  body 
to  take  care  of  the  germs  and  their  toxins  that 
have  escaped  and  are  doing  the  general  tissue  de- 
struction at  places  far  removed  from  the  original 
portals  of  the  invasion. 

OSTEOPATHY    AVAILABLE    IN    PAINS    OF    MECHAN- 
ICAL AND  GERM  ORIGIN  BOTH 

In  conclusion  one  may  say  the  "rheumatic 
pains",  when  directly  traceable  to  some  compara- 
tively prominent  or  comparatively  obscure  tissue 
disturbance,  either  in  the  spine  or  elsewhere,  are 
reasonably  certain  to  be  cured  by  osteopathic  ad- 
justment of  the  lesions.  A  large  percentage  of 
"rheumatism"  is  directly  caused  by  these  an- 
atomical displacements,  tensions,  or  mal-adjust- 
ments,  and  for  all  of  these  osteopathy  is  the  only 
and  at  the  same  time  the  perfect  remedy.  In 
other  forms  of  so-called  rheumatism,  when  the 
pains  are  due  to  the  presence  of  germs  in  the 
body,  osteopathy  may  still  be  relied  upon  as  one 
of  the  most  important  factors  in  the  relief  and 
cure  of  these  infections,  especially  when  the  germs 
or  their  poisons  have  rendered  the  tissues  of  the 

113 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

spine  tense  or  hard.  And  osteopathic  treatment 
in  general  may  be  depended  upon  as  one  of  the 
most  salutary  measures  in  maintaining  a  state  of 
body  well  calculated  to  be  resistent  to  the  several 
germs  that  cause  the  swellings  and  pains  formerly 
called  rheumatism,  as  also  to  other  germs  and  to 
germ  diseases  in  general. 


114 


CHAPTER  VII 

HOW  THE  HUMAN  BODY  IS 
OPERATED 

In  this  number  I  wish  to  tell  my  readers  the 
broad  reasons  why  the  osteopathic  physician  has 
such  remarkable  control  over  the  human  body  in 
all  its  parts  and  organs.  You  often  hear  this 
question  asked  in  a  sort  of  surprise  that  this 
should  be  so.  You  will  often  hear  intelligently 
curious  persons  wonder  why  it  is  that  osteopathy 
has  made  such  a  splendid  success  as  a  healing 
art.  A  system  of  therapy  that  has  given  to  the 
world  so  fine  a  body  of  practitioners;  that  year 
after  year  is  drawing  larger  and  larger  numbers 
of  splendid  men  and  women  into  the  ranks  of 
osteopathic  practitioners ;  a  system  and  a  science 
that  in  a  few  years  have  built  up  so  many  colleges 
and  is  daily  growing  with  a  silent  and  steady 
power  that  is  its  own  best  recommendation  has, 
of  course,  beneath  it  a  solid  foundation  of  scien- 
tific fact  and  truth. 

To  understand  this  broad  foundation  I  will  ask 
my  readers  to  consider  for  a  while  some  intensely 
interesting  facts  of  Nature,  out  of  which  the  art 
and  science  of  osteopathy  have  grown,  and  upon 
which  this  system  rests  as  upon  an  everlasting 
foundation.  For  you  must  understand  that  osteo- 
pathy did  not  fall  out  of  the  sky  like  a  meteor,  but 

115 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

came  about  in  the  natural  evolution  of  things  just 
like  the  wireless  telegraph  and  the  electric  light. 
The  osteopathic  system  of  therapy  became  possible 
from  the  moment  the  true  structure  of  the  ner- 
vous system  was  discovered,  and  as  that  discoyery 
is  most  intimately  associated  with  a  broader  and 
more  fundamental  discovery,  I  will  ask  my  reader 
to  follow  me  for  a  while  in  the  relation  of  one  of 
the  most  amazing  stories  that  has  ever  been  told 
and  in  the  description  of  one  of  the  most  startling 
facts  that  has  been  brought  to  the  attention  of 
men. 

OUR   BODIES   BUILT  FROM    CELLS    LIKE   A 
HOUSE  OF  BRICKS 

It  is  now  a  little  more  than  seventy  years  since 
the  discovery  was  made  that  the  bodies  of  ani- 
mals, including  man,  consist  of  countless  billions 
of  microscopic  animals  called  "cells".  This  epoch- 
making  revelation  startled  the  world  when  it  was 
announced  in  1839  by  its  discoverer,  Theodor 
Schwann,  a  young  German  anatomist  and  physi- 
ologist, who  at  that  time  was  assistant  in  the 
laboratory  of  Johannes  Mueller,  professor  of 
anatomy  and  physiology  at  the  University  of  Ber- 
lin. Previous  to  Schwann's  discovery  it  had  been 
known  that  plants  were  built  up  of  microscopic 
cells,  but  nobody  had  ever  suspected  that  the 
human  body  was  constructed  on  the  same  amazing 
plan.  To  understand,  in  a  general  way  of  course, 
how  the  human  body  is  constructed,  peel  an  or- 
ange, carefully  pull  it  apart  into  its  constituent 
segments,  with  your  fingers,  take  one  of  the  sraal- 

116 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

lest  of  these  segments  and  gently  break  it  across 
as  to  expose  the  "meat"  of  the  orange,  and  then 
carefully  examine  the  broken  surface.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  orange  appears  as  a  granular  texture. 
By  gently  working  at  this  texture  you  can  separ- 
ate the  individual  granules  so  as  to  remove  a  few 
of  them  from  their  countless  neighbors.  The 
granules,  as  you  can  readily  see  with  the  unaided 
eye,  are  in  reality  spindle-shaped  or  roundish 
bodies,  like  tiny  bladders.  Each  one  of  these  little 
bodies  is  a  "cell",  and  the  structure  they  form — all 
packed  in  together  tightly  and  snugly — is  a  "tis- 
sue". The  orange  cell  is  one  of  the  few  forms  of 
cell  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  It  is  a  little  bladder, 
the  wall  of  which  consists  of  plant  fibre,  and  with- 
in the  bladder  is  the  sap — the  protoplasm  of  the 
cell — ^that  potent  stuff  of  which  all  living  matter 
is  composed. 

I  have  said  that  up  to  Schwann's  discovery  it 
was  known  that  plants,  or  vegetable  bodies,  were 
built  up  of  cells,  but  it  was  not  suspected  that  all 
animal  tissues  were  of  the  same  structure.  Plant 
cells  and  animal  cells  have  an  infinite  variety  of 
shapes  and  sizes,  are  put  together  in  several  dif- 
ferent ways,  and  are  almost  all  individually  in- 
visible to  the  unaided  eye.  It  is  this  difference  in 
the  shape,  size  and  the  way  the  cells  are  packed 
together,  that  form  the  main  differences  in  the 
appearance  of  the  different  animal  tissues — apart 
from  the  color  and  odor  of  the  tissues.  The  mus- 
cles consist  of  billions  of  elongated  cells,  as  if  the 
cells  of  the  orange  were  drawn  out  to  invisibility 

117 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

and  packed  longitudinally  together.  When  a 
great  muscle,  like  the  biceps,  for  example,  con- 
tracts, the  contraction  is  due  to  the  fact  that  all 
the  invisible  muscle  cells — called  fibres — contract 
simultaneously  together.  But  in  order  to  see 
these  individual  fibres  you  must  take  some  dead 
muscle — let  us  say  a  tiny  bit  of  beefsteak — soak  it 
in  potash  solution,  in  order  to  dissolve  the  thready, 
fibrous  "connective  tissue"  that  binds  the  fibres 
together,  spread  the  bit  of  muscle  out,  and  look 
at  it  under  a  microscope,  and  then  you  will  see 
the  Individual  fibres — the  cells — as  plainly,  and 
even  much  more  plainly,  than  you  can  see  the  in- 
dividual cells  in  the  tissue  of  an  orange. 

In  the  human  body  the  cells  of  some  tissues, 
like  the  skin  and  hair,  lie  in  layers,  cells  of  the 
topmost  layers  being  flattened  into  scales;  the 
cells  of  others  are  long  drawn  out  as  in  mus- 
cles, the  cells  of  others,  such  as  the  liver,  the 
stomach  and  many  other  glands,  are  arranged  so 
as  to  form  tiny  tubes,  invisible  to  the  unaided  eye ; 
and  the  cells  of  other  organs  or  parts,  like  the 
spleen,  are  crowded  together  somewhat  after  the 
fashion  of  the  orange.  Even  the  bones  consist 
of  living  cells,  together  with  substances  manu- 
factured by  the  cells. 

It  is  believed — and  it  is  known  for  many 
of  the  cells — ^that  all  the  cells  of  the  body  are 
short-lived;  that  some  of  them  are  continually 
dissolving  and  are  carried  away  by  the  blood, 
but  that  they  leave  their  descendants  behind,  just 
like  a  community  of  men:  so  that  while  the  in- 
ns 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

dividual  cells  may  pass  away,  the  community  of 
cells — ^the  organ,  or  the  tissue — continues  to  live. 
This  is  perhaps  generally  true — with  one  great 
exception.  That  exception  is  the  nerve  cell.  The 
nerve  cells  do  not  die,  and  they  do  not  reproduce 
themselves.  The  nerve  cells  of  a  man  in  his  old 
age  are  identical  with  the  nerve  cells  of  infancy. 
From  the  time  that  nerve  cells  make  their  first  ap- 
pearance in  the  growing  organism  long  before 
birth  and  on  until  death,  they  retain  their  indi- 
viduality. They  do  not  reproduce  themselves  and 
dissolve,  as  the  other  cells  do. 

In  short,  nerve  cells  are  in  many  ways  a  re- 
markable exception  to  the  common  laws  of  cell 
life;  and  nervous  tissues — as  we  shall  presently 
see — occupies  a  singular  and  wonderful  position 
among  tissues  in  general,  and  is  exempt  in  many^ 
ways  from  the  dangers  and  diseases  that  threaten 
all  the  other  tissues  of  the  body.  The  nerve  cells 
are  the  rulers  of  all  the  other  cells  of  the  body — 
the  masters;  they  bid  all  the  other  cells — ^they 
force  the  other  cells  to  do  their  particular  work. 
They  force  the  muscles  to  contract ;  they  regulate 
the  flow  of  the  blood  in  the  arteries  and  veins ;  they 
stir  up  the  gland  cells — such  as  those  of  stomach 
and  liver — ^to  secrete  the  products  of  these  organs ; 
they  control  the  nourishment  of  all  the  various 
parts  of  the  body ;  and  they  alone  protect  the  body 
from  a  thousand  dangers  which,  without  the 
ceaseless  watching  and  sleepless  vigilance  of  the 
nerve  cells  (for  these  cells  work  during  sleeping 
and  waking)  would  flow  in  upon  the  body  and  de- 

119 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

stroy  its  life.  The  body  may  be  likened  to  an 
ocean  steamer  of  which  the  nerve  cell  is  the  owner, 
captain,  navigator,  pilot  and  eternal  look-out  man 
all  in  one.  All  the  other  cells  of  the  body  are  the 
obedient  crew  and  ship  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
I  will  return  to  this  subject  a  little  later. 

The  same  nerve  cells  with  which  a  man  is  bom 
last  him  throughout  his  life.  This  is  not  true  of 
the  other  cells  of  the  body.  And  this  fact  has  an 
important  bearing  on  the  treatment  of  disease, 
and  especially  upon  the  osteopathic  method  of 
treating  disease.  Other  cells  of  the  body  may  be 
injured  or  even  destroyed,  and  they  are  replaced 
by  the  generation  of  new  cells  of  their  kind.  But 
if  the  nerve  cells  are  permanently  injured  or  de- 
stroyed by  the  long  use  of  drugs  or  other  destruc- 
tive agents,  they  can  never  be  replaced  by  new 
nerve  cells  and  must  remain  permanently  injured 
as  long  as  the  individual  lives.  Thus,  too,  it  is 
readily  seen  that,  as  the  nerve  cells  rule  the  body 
in  all  its  functions,  the  osteopath,  who  controls 
the  nerve  cells  through  their  great  clearing  house, 
the  spinal  cord,  and  indirectly,  the  brain,  has  his 
finger,  so  to  speak,  on  the  switch-board  of  all  these 
various  functions  which  are  directly  under  control 
of  the  nerves  themselves. 

SCHWANN'S   CELL  DISCOVERY   WAS  A  FORE- 
RUNNER OF  OSTEOPATHY 

Now  while  it  is  true  that  all  animals  and  plants 
are  built  up  of  cells,  we  find  in  Nature  single  cells 
that  live  alone — the  unicellular,  or  one-celled  an- 
imals and  plants.    Countless  billions  of  these  sin- 

120 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 


gle  cells — each  an  animal  or  plant  in  itself — can 
be  found  in  the  water  of  ponds  and  pools.  Bac- 
teria— ^the  so-called  "germs",  a  few  of  which  pro- 
duce disease  when  they  lodge  in  the  body  and  mul- 
tiply there — are  exceedingly  minute  single  cells: 
as  if  an  orange  cell  were  to  be  reduced  to,  say 
1-50,000  or  1-25,000  of  an  inch,  and  were  to  multi- 
ply itself  all  alone  without  association  with  its  fel- 
low cells.  So,  too,  we  find  innumerable  single  an- 
imal cells  that  live  in  water,  or  damp  places,  all 
of  which  are  visible  only  in  the  microscope.  When 
you  see  under  the  microscope  the  wonderful,  the 
almost  intelligent  conduct  and  maneuvering  of  one 
of  these  exceedingly  small  animal  cells,  you  are 
deeply  impressed  with  the  littleness  and  magni- 
tude of  Nature. 

Remember,  now,  that  these  little  single-celled 
animals  were  well  known  before  Schwann  made 
his  discovery  that  the 
human  body  was  only 
a  great  co-ordinated 
mass  of  tiny  individual 
animals,  packed  to- 
gether, put  together, 
strung  and  woven  to- 
gether in  inconceivable  com- 
plexity and  unthinkable  num- 
bers, and  you  may  have  some 
idea  of  how  startled  the  world 
was  when  men  were  first  inform- 
ed of  that  fact.  It  was  really  an 
almost  incredible  thing;  and  it 
is  by  no  means  a  comfortable 

121 


A  single  nerve 
cell  from  the  spi- 
nal cord,  (A)  the 
Along-drawn-out 
fibre  which,  when 
bound  together 
with  millions  of 
its  fellows,  makes 
a  nerve  trunk,  or 
nerve,  as  we  see 
it  in  the  body. 
(B)  the  booy  of 
the  cell  with  its 
nucleus,  _  and  the 
branching  net- 
work of  connect- 
'm<r  fibres. 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

thing;  and  to  be  told  that  one's  brain  con- 
sists of  billions  of  individual  microscopic  ani- 
mals; all  working  together  like  a  perfect  train- 
ed army.  Yet,  such  is  the  fact;  and  when 
Schwann  announced  that  fact  in  1839  he  was  un- 
consciously laying  the  foundations  of  the  modern 
science  and  art  of  osteopathy. 

SOME  OP  THE  STRUCTURES  AND  PROPERTIES  OP 
NERVE  CELLS 

If  you  take  a  little  piece  of  the  spinal  cord,  or 
spinal  marrow,  of  an  ox,  or  any  other  animal  (a 
fish  does  excellently)  and  let  it  soak  over  night 
in  weak  alcohol  or  chloral  hydrate,  and  then  mash 
a  tiny  bit  of  it  between  two  pieces  of  thin  glass 
and  look  at  it  in  a  microscope,  you  will  see  a  sight 
that  should  not  only  startle  and  amaze  you,  but 
should  instruct  you  as  well.  You  will  see  nerve 
cells,  pretty  much  as  they  exist  in  your  own  spinal 
cord — pretty  much  as  they  exist  in  the  living 
brain  and  spinal  cord  of  a  man.  Wonderful 
things  they  are.  There  is  an  irregularly-shaped 
central  body  of  a  dull  grayish  color,  like  ground 
glass,  from  which  stretch  forth  in  many  directions, 
long  sinuous  arms,  like  the  "feelers"  of  a  cuttle- 
fish. In  the  middle  of  the  central  body  is  a  round 
body  that  looks  like  an  eye.  It  is  not  an  eye.  It 
is  the  vital  organ  of  the  nerve  cell,  and  if  some 
carmine  has  been  mixed  with  the  bit  of  spinal 
cord  this  round  eye-like  body  in  the  center  of  the 
nerve  cell  will  be  stained  red.  This  is  the  nucleus 
of  tne  cell  (and  all  cells  of  every  kind  have  a 
nucleus) .    The  nucleus  is  the  vital  part  of  the  cell 

122 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

and  upon  its  life  the  life  of  the  whole  cell  depends. 
All  the  "feelers"  thrown  out  by  the  nerve  cell 
are  richly  branched,  like  the  limbs  of  a  tree, 
breaking  up  into  minute  twigs ;  all  with  one  excep- 
tion. This  exceptional  "feeler"  (and  these  pro- 
cesses from  the  nerve  cell  are  literally  and  truly 
"feelers")  has  few  branches  and,  unlike  the  other 
"feelers"  (technically  called  dendrites  from  the 
Greek  word  for  tree),  it  does  not  terminate  near 
the  cell  body  but  continues  on  for  enormous  dis- 
tances. This  long  feeler  is  called  the  "fibre"  and 
in  company  with  thousands  of  other  fibres  from 
other  nerve  cells  in  the  spinal  cord,  it  runs  out  of 
the  tube  formed  by  the  vertebrae  of  the  backbone, 
and  forms  its  tiny  part  of  what  is  called  a  nerve. 
The  nerve  cells  are  in  the  spinal  cord,  and  the 
fibres  leave  the  cord  (or  the  brain,  for  the  brain 
is  built  up  in  the  same  way  of  cells)  and  in  the 
great  cables  of  fibres  called  nerves  the  fibres  run 
to  all  parts  of  the  body.  The  fibres  constitute  the 
white  matter  of  nervous  tissue,  so  called  because 
of  a  fatty  substance  which  surrounds  and  insu- 
lates the  fibres,  and  is  called  the  "white  substance 
of  Schwann",  Schwann  having  discovered  it.  This 
white  sheath  is  also  called  by  other  names,  but 
the  white  color  of  nerve  is  due  to  the  white  fatty 
sheath  that  surrounds  each  individual  fibre. 

A  nerve  fibre  bound  up  with  thousands  of 
others  in  a  nerve  will  run  from  the  cell  in  the  cord 
without  a  break  clear  to  the  finger  or  toe  tip, 
where  it  ends  in  the  skin.  If  you  prick  the  skin 
of  the  finger  the  impulse  is  carried  up  the  fibre  to 

123 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 


the  cell  in  the  cord,  and  there  the  cell  passes  the 
impulse  to  another  nerve  cell,  and  so  on  up  to  the 
gray  matter  (the  cells)  of  the  brain,  where  the 
impulse  is  "felt"  as  sensation. 

To  convey  some  practical  notion  of  the  real  size 
of  the  nerve  cell  together  with  the  length  of  some 
of  the  longest  of  the  fibres,  we  may  compare  it 
with  a  much  larger  object.  There  are  nerve  cells  in 
the  spinal  cord  about  1- 
100th  of  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter or  less  with  mmute 
fibres  coming  from  them, 
so  small  as  to  be  visible 
only  in  the  microscope 
Many  thousands  of  these 
fibres  are  gathered  together 
and  bound  tightly  with  con- 
nective tissue  so  as  to  forn: 
the  cable-like  nerve  trunks 
which  pass  out  of  the  tube- 
like cavity  of  the  backbone. 
These  cables  of  nerve  fibres 
and  their  cable-like  branches- 
nerves — ^vary  in  thickness  from  the 
diameter  of  a  lead  pencil  down  to  a 
much  smaller  size,  and  after  they 
leave  the  backbone  they  break  up 
into  smaller  branches  which  supply 
the  muscles  and  skin  of  the  upper 
and  lower  parts  of  the  body,  giv- 
ing off  smaller  and  smaller  bundles 
of  fibres  as  they  recede  from  the 
spine,  until  finally  the  nerve  is  broken  up  into 

124 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

branches  no  longer  visible  except  in  the  micro- 
scope. These  invisible  bundles  of  fibres  ultimately 
branch  until  they  separate  into  the  still  smaller 
individual  fibres  which  connect  with  almost  all 
the  cells  of  the  tissues  and  stimulate  them  into 
action.  It  is  the  little  nerve  fibres  that  cause  the 
muscle  cell  to  contract,  the  gland  cell  to  secrete, 
and  so  on. 

Certain  nerve  cells  in  the  spinal  cord  send  their 
minute  fibres  all  the  way  without  a  break  to  the 
foot.  Let  us  take  one  of  these,  say  one  whose 
fibre  goes  to  the  tip  of  the  great  toe,  supplying  it 
with  nerves  of  sensation.  Let  us  imagine  that 
this  nerve  cell  in  the  cord  were  the  size  of  an 
ordinary  water-bucket.  Its  fibre  then  would  be 
proportionately  thicker  and  longer.  It  would  be 
about  as  thick  as  a  broomstick  and  would  be  about 
two  miles  long !  A  man  who  would  be  big  enough 
to  have  nerve  cells  and  nerve  fibres  of  that  size 
would  measure  about  two  miles  from  the  end  of 
his  backbone  to  the  soles  of  his  feet;  and  if  the 
rest  of  his  body  were  in  proportion  he  would  be 
in  all  nearly  four  miles  high !  Such  a  man  could 
almost  breathe  ordinary  men  in  and  out  of  his 
nostrils  without  inconvenience.  Of  these  nerve 
.  cells  each  with  its  own  fibre,  it  is  estimated  that 
there  are  in  the  brain  and  spinal  cord  about  two 
thousand  millions. 

The  nerve  cells  and  their  intercommunications 
in  the  human  organism  make  up  a  system  which 
probably  possesses  more  apparatus  and  contains 
more  mysteries  a  hundred-fold  than  all  the  elec- 
tric systems  of  our  country. 

125 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

The  spinal  nerves  furnish  the  muscles  and  skin 
with  the  fibres  that  give  motion  and  sensation  to 
these  organs.  In  the  skin  the  fibres  break  up  into 
still  smaller  fibrils,  and  end  in  strange  looking 
bulbs,  which  furnish  the  skin  with  organs  of 
touch.  Some  of  these  nei^e  endings,  as  they  are 
called,  are  sensitive  to  cold  only;  others  to  heat 
only ;  others  to  touch  only ;  and  you  can  prove  this 
by  lightly  touching  the  skin  here  and  there  with 
a  cold  pencil  point  or  blunt  pointed  metallic  rod, 
and  noting  the  "cold  spots"  and  so  on.  The  skin 
is  crowded  so  thickly  with  these  nerve  endings 
that  even  if  all  the  other  tissues  of  a  man  were 
wiped  out — if  he  had  nothing  but  his  nervous  sys- 
tem left — you  could  still  easily  recognize  his  face 
from  the  nerve  endings  alone.  Now  as  each  sen- 
sitive ending  of  a  fibre  has  a  corresponding  fibre 
which  runs  to  some  muscle  fibre,  the  sensory  and 
motor  apparatuses  of  the  body  work  in  perfect 
harmony.  If  the  skin  of  the  toe  be  pricked  the 
impulse  travels  to  the  cord  along  a  fibre  of  sen- 
sation and  is  there  transferred  to  motor  cells 
which  send  impulses  to  the  muscles  that  move  the 
leg,  and  the  foot  is  instantly  withdrawn.  This  is 
called  reflex  action  and  when  the  physician  taps 
below  the  knee  of  his  patient  to  "test  his  reflex"  he 
is  using  this  mechanism.  If  we  could  dissolve 
away  all  the  tissues  of  the  body  except  the  nervous 
system,  there  would  be  left  a  phantom  of  a  man 
whom  we  could  easily  recognize  and  identify  from 
the  nerve  endings  in  the  skin.     So  that  we  thus 

126 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 


see  that  the  nervous  system  is  ever  on  the  watch 
at  the  farthest  outposts  for  danger  to  the  body. 

Through  these  millions  of  microscopic  sense  or- 
gans in  the  skin,  that  great  mass  of  nerve  cells 
and  fibres  called  the  brain,  is  instantaneously 
warned  of  all  danger.  The  nerve  fibres  of  the 
ear,  of  the  nose,  of  the  tongue  and  of  the  skin 
generally,  serve  the  double  purpose  of  assisting 
the  body  to  get  its  food,  to  enjoy  all  pleasurable 
things  whatsoever,  to 
stimulate  the  body  to 
move  about,  from  place 
to  place,  or  to  move  the  ^  p^^ 
muscles  without  change  g^f.^^'^^^ 
of  location.  But  these  §TheTrii" 
wonderful  sense  organs  ^oVcminte 
do  more.  They  bring  E^^eiiS 
instant  warning  of  dan-  may  Wve 
ger.  They  tell  us  when  tZ  % 
to  fly  from  danger,  when  ^S^"^  t£ 
to  avoid  the  sources  of  '"^  '"  '^' 
danger  in  disagreeable 
odors,  sights,  sounds,  or 
tastes,  when  to  seek  ref- 
uge from  the  cold  or 
heat,  and  in  every  move- 
ment of  the  body  guide 
it  and  direct  it  aright. 
The  nerve  endings  in  the 
skin  sound  the  alarm 
from  dangers  without, 
and  the  nerve  endings  in 
the  internal  organs  and 

127 


gray    matter 
of  the  brain. 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

parts  warn  us  of  danger  from  within  by  report- 
ing to  the  brain  every  abnormal,  or  nearly  every 
abnormal,  condition  that  invades  us.  Thus  we 
see  that  the  nervous  system  with  its  great  shad- 
owy, veil-like  mantle  of  nerve  endings,  acts  like  a 
protecting  vapor  to  the  body,  and,  by  means  of 
the  voluntary  muscles,  which  are  the  mere  slaves 
of  the  brain  and  the  spinal  cord,  commands  the 
body  to  move  towards  and  do  things  that  give 
pleasure  and  comfort,  and  to  move  away  from 
and  to  avoid  doing  things  that  bring  discomfort 
or  pain. 

It  is  upon  this  master  system  of  tissue,  the 
nerves,  and  the  demonstration  of  their  control  by 
his  skillful  manipulations,  that  the  osteopath 
founds  his  science  for  the  prevention  and  cure 
of  disease. 

ALL  OTHER  STRUCTURES  VASSALS  OF  THE 
BRAIN  AND  NERVES 

The  brain  and  the  nerves  are  the  masters  of 
the  body.  All  the  other  organs  and  parts  are 
slaves.  And  to  give  pleasure  and  comfort  to  it- 
self the  brain  compels  all  the  other  organs  and 
tissues  to  do  its  will.  This  will  is,  as  a  rule, 
directed  so  that  when  the  brain  and  nerves  are 
best  served,  the  rest  of  the  body  is  best  served 
also.  The  best  good  of  the  brain  and  the  nerves, 
therefore,  is  as  a  general  rule,  the  best  good  of  the 
slave  organs  and  tissues  too.  But  this,  unfortun- 
ately, is  not  always  the  case.  When  the  will 
and  desires  of  the  nervous  system  are  not  in 
harmony  with  the  general  welfare  of  the  body, 
the  body  suffers.    As  the  nerve  tissue  is  the  ab- 

128 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

solute  master,  the  muscles  must  obey  it,  even  when 
its  mandates  are  destructive  or  insane.  There- 
fore the  nervous  system,  to  gratify  its  own  wants, 
will  often  destroy  the  useful  slaves  that  minister 
to  its  needs.  Like  the  soldiers  in  the  fatal  charge 
at  Balaclava,  the  muscles  and  the  other  tissues 
obey  without  question. 

Theirs  not  to  make  reply. 
Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
Theirs — but  to  do  and  die. 

So  the  nervous  system,  to  gratify  its  capricious 
and  destructive  desires,  often  compels  the  muscles 
to  feed  the  body  with  poisonous  drugs  and  stimu- 
lants and  to  do  other  things  that  not  only  destroy 
the  slaves,  but  in  the  end  the  master,  also,  that 
is  served  and  nourished  by  the  slaves.  The  stom- 
ach, the  liver,  the  kidneys,  the  pancreas,  the  in- 
testines, the  lungs  and  the  other  glands,  and  above 
all  the  voluntary  muscles,  are  often  ruined  and 
wrecked  by  the  intemperate  or  abnormal  desires 
of  the  nervous  system.  The  brain,  seated  upon 
an  imperial  throne,  whose  mandates  are  instantly 
and  absolutely  obeyed,  is  often  an  insane  Nero 
dealing  death  and  ruin  around  him  and  ending 
as  only  such  insane  tyrants  can  end,  in  death 
and  destruction  for  himself. 

There  is,  however,  another  view  of  the  nervous 
system  in  which  the  blame  cannot  be  laid  upon  the 
nervous  system  itself.  The  nervous  system,  in 
spite  of  all  its  superb  machinery  of  self -protection 
and  self -gratification,  can  be  injured  in  many 
ways,  and  not  receive  warning  to  avoid  the  dan- 
ger. 

129 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 


The  nervous  system,  for  example,  may  be  com- 
pelled to  work  overtime.  It,  too,  may  be  a  slave 
in  its  turn ;  and  in  very  fact  the  nervous  system, 
with  the  remainder  of  the  body,  is  itself  a  slave 
to  a  i>ower  higher  than  itself.  This  power  may 
be  single  or  two-fold.  It  may  consist  of  defects 
or  faults  in  the  heritage  of  the  nervous  system 
itself.  Or  it  may  consist  in  the  defects  and  faults 
that  have  been  inherited  by  the  other  organs  and 
tissues  from  parents.  These  would  be  defects  of 
inheritance.  The  de- 
fects may  be  due  again 
to  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  individ- 
ual human  being,  or 
other  organism,  is 
compelled  to  live. 
These  would  be  defects 
of  environment.  But 
a  normal  nervous  sys- 
tem, surrounded  by 
defective  organs  is 
really  a  nervous  sys- 
tem in  an  unhealthy 
environment.  So  we 
see  that,  given  a  nat- 
urally sound  nervous 
system,  such  a  nervous 
system  may  suffer 
from  being  lodged  first  in  a  body  the  organs 
of  which  are  unhealthy  because  of  unhealthy  par- 
ents, or  because  of  disease  due  to  malformations, 
mal-alignments  or  mal-adjustments  in  the  struc- 

130 


A  Sympathetic 
Nerve  Cell  such  as 
is  found  in  man's 
Solar  Plexus. 
Cells  like  this 
never  sleep — they 
automatically  run 
and  regulate  all  of 
life's  processes, 
night  and  day 
from  birth  to 
death. 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ture  of  the  tissues  that  surround  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, or  by  poisons  in  the  body,  which,  although 
they  may  not  affect  the  nervous  system  itself,  do 
disable  the  slave  tissues  and  make  them  incapable 
of  obeying  the  orders  of  the  nerves,  even  when 
the  orders  are  given  with  clear  enunciation  and 
the  best  intent  for  the  common  good.  Such  a 
nervous  system  would  be  disabled,  more  or  less, 
by  the  defects  of  its  organic  environment ;  by  the 
defects  in  the  tissues,  the  organs,  and  the  fluids 
of  the  body  in  which  the  healthy  normal  nervous 
system  is  lodged. 

Secondly,  the  nervous  system  may  be  stopped  or 
disabled  by  the  poisons  which  accumulate  in  the 
blood  and  other  fluids  of  the  body,  and  in  the  tis- 
sues, because  of  overwork  or  of  unhealthy  sur- 
roundings in  which  the  human  being  is  compelled 
to  live — in  spite  of  the  warnings  which  the  nerve 
endings  in  the  skin  and  eyes,  ears  and  nose,  and  in 
all  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  convey  to  the  brain. 
In  this  case  the  nervous  system  is  once  more  a 
slave  to  its  environment.  In  either  case — wheth- 
er from  poisons  present  in  the  body  through  in- 
heritance of  defective  organs  from  parents;  or 
from  disease;  or  from  overwork,  or  other  faults 
in  the  organic  environment  ("lesions"),  the  nerv- 
ous system  is  itself  a  slave,  and  its  commands  to 
its  own  slaves — the  other  tissues — are  not  obeyed. 

Now,  while  we  hear  a  great  deal  about  nervous 
diseases,  the  truth  is  that  true  diseases  of  the 
nervous  system  are  comparatively  rare.  What  I 
mean  is  that  there  are  innumerable  diseases — let 
us  call  it  "bad  health"  using  contradictory  terms 

131 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

of  the  layman,  which  have  generally  a  sound  sense 
bottom,  by  the  way — there  are  many  diseases,  or 
much  "bad  health"  that  manifest  themselves  in 
the  nervous  system  without  being  nervous  diseases 
at  all.  The  nervous  system  in  such  cases  is  per- 
fectly sound  and  well,  but  it  seems  to  be  sick  and 
shattered  because  it  is  surrounded  by  poisons  in 
the  fluids  of  the  body  and  by  organs  which,  be- 
cause of  the  poisons,  are  disabled  as  regards 
obeying  the  commands  of  the  nervous  system 
when  they  are  uttered.  In  these  cases — which 
form  perhaps  90  per  cent  of  all  diseases,  or  "bad 
health" — ^the  apparent  nervous  disorder  is  not  a 
true  nervous  disorder,  but  only  the  frantic  inces- 
sant activity  of  the  brain  and  nerves  to  force  the 
other  organs  to  do  their  duty  when,  alas,  these 
other  organs  are  deaf  to  the  command — disabled 
by  defects  of  structure  or  by  poisons  which  nullify 
the  nerve  message. 

It  is  truly  wonderful  how  perfectly  resistant  to 
disease  or  disorder  of  any  kind  the  nervous  system 
is!  Ages  of  development  and  necessity  have  suc- 
cessively selected  for  survival  only  the  most 
strongly  resistant  nervous  systems,  so  that  very 
few  weak  nervous  systems  remain.  All  our 
predecessors — or  nearly  all — that  had  weak  ner- 
vous systems  were  wiped  out  before  they  could 
get  children.  Therefore,  only  the  strongest — ^the 
most  immune — nervous  systems  survive.  This  is 
the  "survival  of  the  fittest"  and  the  great  law  of 
natural  selection  is  seen  best  exemplified  in  the 
security,  the  strength,  the  immunity,  the  imperial 
power  and  sanctity  of  brain  and  nerve  in  all  the 

132 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 


bewildering  and  manifold  forms  of  life.  When 
a  man,  or  other  animal,  is  starved  to  death,  the 
nervous  system  is  the  very  last  to  suffer  from  loss 
of  weight.  All  the  tissues,  all  the  organs,  give 
up  their  substance  first  to  the  brain  and  nerves, 
and  next  to  the  muscles.  This,  you  see,  is  good 
policy  on  the  part  of  Nature,  for  the  reason  that 
if  the  nerves  suffered  and  lost  power,  they  could 
not  stimulate  the  muscles  to  move  about,  secure 
food,  and  bring  it  to  the  mouth.  In  starvation, 
the  body  weight  is  reduced  two-thirds  before  the 
nervous  system  loses  a  grain's 
weight  of  substance.  Very  few 
germs  attack  nerve  tissue.  The 
nerves  are  attacked  by  the 
poison  of  the  tetanus  germ,  and 
by  the  germ  of  hydrophobia. 
But  the  number  of  germs  and 
germ  poisons  which  attack 
nerve  tissue  is  comparatively 
small.  So-called  "disorders  of 
the  nerves"  are  really  not  nerve 
disorders  at  all,  but  the  efforts 
of  the  nervous  system — the 
frantic  commands  and  over- 
activity of  the  nerves — to  re- 
store order  to  the  disordered 
body  in  which  they  find  them- 
selves. 

Unfortunately  the  rule  of 
the  old  school  medicine  has  been  to  treat  the 
nerves  in  these  cases  by  the  administration  of 
drug  "tonics"  and  other  medicines.     This  prac- 

133 


A  frog 
sympa- 
t  hetic 
nerve 
cell. 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

tice  is  now  happily  being  abandoned  by  scien- 
tifically educated  and  intelligent  doctors  of  the 
old  school,  who  have  come  to  know  that  the  only 
nerve  tonics  which  can  help  the  nerves  are  good 
food  and  good  blood.  But  the  truth  is  that  "ner- 
vous symptoms"  are  in  reality  a  proof  not  of  the 
sickness  of  the  nerves,  but  of  their  health,  in 
most  cases!  The  nervous  system  is  sound  in  all 
cases  save  the  few  in  which  the  nerve  tissue 
itself  is  at  fault.  The  osteopath  here  is  on  the 
right  track  and  always  has  been.  And  to  the 
view  of  the  osteopath  the  other  doctors  are  com- 
ing round,  only  they  have  neither  the  knowledge 
nor  the  skill  of  the  osteopath  to  get  at  the  root 
of  the  business  by  handling  the  nervous  system 
in  a  way  that  will  give  to  it  the  extra  power  it 
needs  to  force  the  organs  into  normal  response. 
The  cure  for  all  toxins  in  the  body  lies  in  the 
fluids  and  tissues  of  the  body  itself ! 

BODY'S  CHEMICAL  ACTION  UNDER  CONTROL 
OF   THE   NERVES 

What,  let  us  ask,  is  a  "healthy"  man  ?  The  an- 
swer is,  a  healthy  man  is  an  animal  the  cells  of 
whose  organs  and  tissues  have  the  power  of  full 
and  instantaneous  response  to  the  commands  of 
the  nervous  system,  when  these  commands  are  di- 
rected for  the  good  and  the  comfort,  not  only  of 
the  brain  and  nerves  themselves,  but  for  the  ease 
and  comfort  of  the  other  tissues  also.  Recall,  now, 
that  the  nervous  system  consists  of  microscopic 
cells  with  long  tiny  microscopic  fibres,  that  often 
at  long  distances  from  the  nerve  cells  themselves, 

134 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

connect  up  with  all  the  principal  other  cells  of  the 
body.  When  you  are  told  that  the  minute  invisi- 
ble fibres  of  the  nerve  cells  in  the  brain  and  cord 
are  connected  with  other  nerve  cells  in  the  body 
cavity  called  the  sympathetic  (or  involuntary) 
nerves,  and  that  these  involuntary  cells  have  fibres 
that  ramify  infinitely  to  each  individual  cell  of  all 
the  organs — of  the  digestive,  the  genito-urinary, 
the  respiratory  systems — and  to  each  individual 
cell  of  the  heart  and  the  blood  vessels  (for  the 
heart  and  the  blood  vessels,  too,  are  built  up  of 
cells) ;  and  that  every  cell  of  every  other  impor- 
tant organ,  such  as  the  mysterious  "ductless 
glands"  like  the  thyroid,  the  mysterious  ovaries 
and  testicles  with  their  unknown  secretions  that 
aflfect  the  health  and  well  being  of  the  entire  body, 
the  mysterious  suprarenal  glands,  and  other  or- 
gans of  that  peculiar  kind — when  you  are  told  all 
this,  you  will  come  to  a  slight  realization  of  the 
tremendous  sway  which  the  nervous  system  has 
over  the  infinitely  intricate  chemical  life  of  the 
body.  The  cells  of  the  organs  cannot  act  unless 
bidden  by  the  nerve  fibres.  If  the  cells  are  poi- 
soned by  toxins,  whether  from  the  body  cells  them- 
selves or  from  invading  germs,  the  mandates  that 
pour  along  the  nerve  fibres  from  the  nerve  cells, 
bidding  the  organ  cells  to  secrete,  or  bidding  other 
cells  do  other  things,  are  blocked;  and  finding 
their  mandates  blocked,  the  nerve  cells  over-exert 
themselves  in  extraordinary  commands  to  the 
cells  of  the  other  organs  to  do  what  the  other  or- 
gans cannot  do  because  of  the  poisons  that  bathe 
them  all  around. 

135 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 


Now  how  does  the  osteopath  answer  the  ques- 
tion which  the  body  of  his  patient  puts  to  him  ? 

If  the  blocking  of  the  commands  of  the  nerve 
cells  be  due  to  some  impingement  on  the  nerves 
by  reason  of  a  faulty  articulation,  or  an  over-ten- 
sion or  congestion  of  the  ligaments  and  muscles, 
or  other  maladjustment  of  the  spine,  or  elsewhere, 
he  corrects  the  maladjustment,  removes  the  block, 
and  the  nerve,  which  was  healthy  enough  all  the 
while,  can  now  convey  its  message  to  the  organ 
cell — ^which  was  also  healthy  all  the  while;  and 
the  "disorder"  is  cured. 

If  on  the  other  hand  the 
blocking  be  due,  not  to  any 
such  maladjustment — lesion  it 
is  called  by  the  osteopath — 
but  is  due  to  some  defect  in 
the  organ  cells  themselves  by 
reason  of  inheritance;  or  is 
due  to  defects  in  the  cells  by 
reason  of  poisons  in  the  fluids 
which  bathe  them,  the  osteo- 
path reinforces  the  power  of 
the  nerves  by  vastly  increas- 
ing the  strength  of  the  com- 
mands sent  along  the  fibres  to 
the  organ  cells.  To  the  im- 
pulses naturally  flowing  down 
the  tiny  nerve  fibres  from  the 
nerve  cells  in  the  spinal  cord 
and  the  brain,  his  fingers, 
skilfully  touching  the  great 
nerve  trunks,  add  a  thousand- 

136 


The  "Skeleton"  of  the 
nervous  sytem  as  it  would 
look  if  its  visible  structure 
were  disassociated  from  all 
the  rest  of  the  body. 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 


fold  power  so  that  to  the  mas- 
ter nerve  cells'  own  power  of 
command  is  brought  this  tre- 
mendous aid  from  the  outside 
environment — an  aid  and  ally 
which  can  come  to  the  nerve 
by  no  other  means  except  that 
which  the  osteopathic  physi- 
cian uses,  and  which  is  one  of 
the  main  foundation  stones  of 
the  science  and  art  of  oste- 
opathy itself.  That  is  what 
I  meant  a  while  ago  when  I 
said  that  when  Theodor 
Schwann  discovered  that  the 
nervous  system  consisted  of 
individual  cells  with  long 
drawn  out  fibres,  he  made  it 
possible  for  A.  T.  Still,  M.  D., 
in  our  time  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  the  modem  science 
of  osteopathy;  and  by  this 
time,  I  believe,  the  reader  will 
have  been  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened to  see  the  truth  of  that 
assertion. 

The  nerves,  then,  control 
the  chemism  of  the  body  and 
its  organs  and  this  chemism 
or  chemical  reaction,  being  controlled  by  the 
nerves,  is  hence  also  under  the  control  of  the  oste- 
opath. Thus  the  osteopath  plays  upon  the  natural 
chemism  of  the  body,  avoiding  the  use  of  nerve- 

137 


Sectional  drawing  illus- 
trating how  the  nerves  from 
the  Cerebro-Spinal  and 
Sympathetic  systems  rami- 
fy to  all  the  organs.  This 
reveals  the  nerve-routes 
through  which  osteopathic 
fingers  "telegraph"  vital 
messages  from  the  posterior 
(sensory)  nerves,  through 
the  spinal  cord  and  brain, 
to  the  internal  organs. 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

destroying  drugs.  In  former  times  the  old  drug 
therapy  sought  mainly  to  find  drugs  which  by 
acting  on  the  various  nerve  centers  to  increase  or 
diminish  their  activity,  would  by  that  route  con- 
trol the  body's  functions.  But  it  was  forgotten 
that  this  control  was  often  secured  at  the  expense 
of  destroying  the  natural  automatic  regulation 
of  the  body  by  the  nervous  system.  Health  was 
not  restored.  The  nerves  were  merely  unduly 
excited  or  depressed  and  the  artificial  effects  of 
this  treatment  were  mistaken  for  actual  cures. 

So,  too,  it  can  readily  be  seen  that  this  direct 
connection  with  all  the  organs  of  the  body  by  the 
nervous  system  is  the  very  thing  which  makes  it 
possible  for  the  vital  processes  of  one  person  to 
pass  under  the  direction,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  the  control  of,  the  finger  of  another  applied 
externally  to  the  body.  The  trained  hands  of  the 
osteopathic  physician,  applied  to  the  spinal  switch- 
board of  the  patient,  bring  health  to  bodily  func- 
tions by  normalizing  all  tissues  and  especially  the 
nerve  centers  and  the  organs  they  command. 


188 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"THE  BLOOD  IS  THE  LIFE"  AND  HOW 
OSTEOPATHY  KEEPS  IT  PURE 

Ever  since  the  far-off  day  when  men  first  ac- 
quired the  habit  of  leaving  behind  them  written 
records  of  their  thoughts  and  doings,  the  blood 
has  been  an  object  of  prime  interest  and  atten- 
tion. Even  long  before  that  time,  blood  must 
have  been  a  principal  theme  of  thought  and  dis- 
cussion; for  not  only  men  but  the  carnivorous 
lower  animals  themselves  are  always  conscious, 
or  sub-conscious,  of  blood  and  its  uses  and  impor- 
tance, not  alone  as  associated  with  the  slaughter  of 
animals  used  for  food,  but  also  as  the  hot  fluid 
which  pulses  in  the  arteries  and  flows  in  the 
veins,  the  brilliant  red  color  of  which  is  so  glar- 
ingly and  strikingly  vivid  when,  upon  the  slightest 
puncture  of  the  skin,  it  leaps  into  view. 

The  mere  sight  of  blood  has  often  a  peculiar 
psychic  effect  upon  certain  sensitive  persons.  I 
once  knew  a  certain  anatomist  of  wide  reputation, 
who  grew  dizzy  whenever  he  saw  blood.  He  had 
seen  dissected  thousands  of  dead  men  without  a 
qualm,  but  to  see  a  tiny  trickling  from  the  mar- 
velous red  river  of  life  tended  to  make  him  swoon. 
In  all  other  ways  he  was  a  strong  man.  No  other 
sight  could  shock  him.  But  the  sight  of  blood 
made  him  sick. 

There  is  a  reason  for  all  this  human  interest  in 
blood,  and  that  reason  is  the  ancient  inherited 

139 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

instinct  that  tells  us,  with  an  emphasis  which  no 
mere  experience  can  give,  that  the  Prophet  was 
right  when  he  said  that  "the  blood  is  the  life". 
Men  knew  that  to  bleed  meant  to  die,  and  in  fact 
all  those  animals  whose  blood  did  not  have  the 
property  of  quickly  clotting  were  eliminated  be- 
fore they  could  produce  offspring,  so  that  only 
those  animals  whose  blood  clotted  survived.  Were 
it  not  for  its  property  of  clotting  at  the  wound, 
thus  closing  the  wound  and  stopping  the  flow,  the 
blood  would  keep  on  flowing  from  a  small  wound 
until  the  animal,  or  the  man,  were  dead. 

But  ancient  as  is  the  importance  of  blood  in  the 
thoughts  of  men,  the  blood  is  regarded  with  infin- 
itely more  interest  today  than  it  ever  was;  and 
if  the  ancient  prophet  could  say  with  truth  that 
the  blood  was  the  life,  the  scientist  of  today  can 
assert  with  equal  force  that  it  is  more  than  life. 
We  can  say  with  positive  conviction  that  the  blood 
is  also  the  f orestaller  of  death ;  that  the  blood  is 
the  great  stream  along  which  float  the  countless 
protecting  hosts  of  the  body  that  ward  off  the 
agents  of  destruction  that  threaten  us  from  with- 
out, and  build  up  the  breaches  that  have  been 
made  within.  The  blood  not  only  carries  nourish- 
ment to  every  minute  chink  and  cell  of  the  body, 
and  carries  away,  as  in  a  great  sewer  system, 
the  waste  matters  of  the  tissuse — such  as  carbon 
dioxide,  urea,  water  and  other  ashes  and  debris 
of  the  slow  combustion  called  metabolism  con- 
stantly going  on  in  the  tissues — ^but  it  likewise 
bears  in  its  swift-flowing  stream  we  know  not 
how  many  substances  that  protect  the  body  from 

140 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

harm — substances  that  have  been  inherited  from 
the  most  remote  ancestors,  or  that  have  been  new- 
ly introduced  into  the  blood  by  disease.  For  a 
disease  often  acts  as  its  own  cure  and  prevention 
for  the  future — immunity  this  is  called. 

ALL  THE  FACTS  OF  MODERN  RESEARCH 
CONFIRM   OSTEOPATHY 

In  previous  months  I  have  told  you  about  the 
high  importance  which  the  osteopathic  physician 
attaches  to  the  nerves,  with  their  millions  of  in- 
visible fibers  that  ramify  to  almost  all  of  the 
countless  billion  of  cells  of  which  the  body  is  made 
up.  But  the  osteopathic  physician  also  realizes 
the  importance  of  the  blood  as  the  great  agent 
through  which,  with  the  cells  as  the  intermedi- 
aries between  the  blood  and  the  nerves,  the  nerves 
can  react  indirectly  on  all  the  tissues  and  even  on 
the  nerve-cells  and  nerve-fibers  themselves. 

In  this  review  I  shall  try  to  tell  you  a  few  of 
the  facts  upon  which  osteopathy  founds  its  theory 
and  practice  in  the  treatment  of  disease  of  every 
kind;  for  modem  osteopaths  have  merely  seized 
upon  and  taken  for  themselves  the  great  body 
of  facts  which  science — ^working  quite  without  re- 
gard to  the  cure  of  disease — has  discovered  for 
itself  during  the  past  century. 

To  give  you  an  example  of  how  long  and  pa- 
tiently investigators  will  labor  with  a  problem,  let 
us  consider  the  question  of  the  clotting  of  the 
blood.  The  first  modern  investigators  of  the 
causes  of  the  clotting  of  the  blood  were  John  Hun- 
ter  (1728-1793)   and  William    Hewson    (1767), 

141 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

who  asked  themselves  the  question,  "Why  does 
the  blood  clot?"  and  who  independently  undertook 
a  most  interesting  (and  now  historical)  series 
of  experiments  with  the  answer  to  the  question 
in  view.  Hunter  and  Hewson  merely  broke  the 
ice  of  the  problem,  however,  and  it  is  only  within 
the  past  decade  that  a  satisfactory  answer  has 
been  provided.  Hunter  was  struck  with  the  fact 
that  the  blood  clotted  when  it  was  shed.  Why  did 
it  not  clot  in  the  vessels?  One  hundred  reasons 
(at  a  guess)  were  assumed,  and  had  to  be  rejected, 
one  after  another,  when  experiment  proved  them 
false.  And  it  is  only  after  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  that  the  problem  has  been  worked  out  with 
a  measurable  degree  of  satisfaction.  But  the 
problem  is  not  solved  yet !  For  each  new  discov- 
ery has  opened  up  new  problems  that  await  new 
answers;  and  it  has  been  found  that  to  under- 
stand the  clotting  of  the  blood  in  any  degree  of 
thoroughness  it  will  be  necessary  to  understand 
the  very  nature  of  matter  itself! 

For  nearly  140  years  physiologists  had  been  in- 
vestigating the  chemical  nature  of  the  blood  in 
all  sorts  of  ingenious  experiments;  and,  while 
their  progress  had  been  good  in  its  way,  it  was 
infinitely  slow  when  compared  with  the  rapid 
work  and  the  truly  remarkable  discoveries  that 
have  been  made  within  the  past  20  or  25  years  in 
the  various  laboratories  of  the  world — in  Europe 
principally,  of  course. 

The  modern  era  of  our  knowledge  of  the  blood 
in  disease  dates  in  reality  less  than  20  years  ago, 
in  one  respect,  and  less  than  30  years  ago  in  an- 

142 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

other.  I  will  recur  to  this  difference  a  little  later, 
but  first  you  must  understand  what  the  blood  is, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  understand  it  at  all. 

Many  years  ago  Macallum,  the  physiologist  of 
the  University  of  Toronto,  analyzed  the  blood  of 
animals  (including  man)  in  comparison  with  sea 
water,  and  found  that  the  blood  was  very  similar 
in  many  of  its  constitutents  to  the  water  of  the 
sea. 

The  blood  of  animals  (including  man)  consists 
of  water  in  which  are  dissolved  the  chlorides, 
phosphates,  carbonates  and  sulphates  of  sodium, 
calcium,  potassium  and  magnesium  in  about  the 
percentage  in  which  these  saline  substances  are 
found  in  sea  water.  Sea  water  contains  many 
other  salts  dissolved  in  it,  but  this  may  be  neg- 
lected for  the  present.  Also  dissolved  in  the  water 
of  the  blood  are  found  substances  being  carried 
to  the  tissues  and  waste  matters  on  their  way  to- 
wards excretion.  Macallum  suggested  the  inter- 
esting theory  that  the  liquid  part  of  the  blood  of 
animals  had  been  originally  inherited  from  blood- 
less ancestors  —  inhabitants  of  the  sea  —  with 
water  circulation  like  the  sponge  and  other  similar 
animals,  whose  circulatory  system  consisted  of  an 
intricate  labyrinth  of  canals  (vessels)  with  outer 
openings  into  which  poured  the  water  of  the  sea, 
to  pour  out  again  back  into  the  sea  from  other 
openings,  or  pores.  If  we  imagine  that  the  open- 
ings through  which  the  water  flowed  in  and  out 
were  to  close  up;  that  the  vessels,  or  channels, 
or  canals,  through  generations  of  slow  change, 
were  to  develop  a  heart;  that  the  sea  water  were 

143 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

retained  within  the  vessels,  and  was  gradually 
supplied  from  the  animal's  tissues  with  specially 
developed  cells,  which  floated  in  it  as  their  natural 
habitat ;  and  that  the  digested  food  were  absorbed 
into  the  water  in  the  vessels  through  the  walls  of 
the  vessels  from  the  stomach  —  why,  then,  we 
would  have  animal  blood  just  as  it  is  today,  with 
its  sodium  chloride  and  some  other  mineral  salts 
(in  the  same  proportion  as  these  salts  exist  in  sea 
water),  with  its  red  and  white  corpuscles — that 
is,  the  floating  cells,  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 

Now  this  idea  of  Macallum's  gives  you  a  very 
fair  rough  notion  of  what  blood  really  is.  It  is 
water  with  a  few  mineral  salts  (such  as  sodium 
chloride  and  others)  dissolved  in  it;  with  digested 
(that  is,  dissolved)  food  in  it;  with  the  waste  sub- 
stances of  the  body  dissolved  in  it  (as  the  waste 
substances  of  the  sponge's  body  are  dissolved  in 
the  water  that  pours  out  of  its  canals  into  the 
sea) ;  and  with  many  other  substances  dissolved 
in  it,  of  which  I  am  about  to  tell  you  now. 

It  is  in  these  other  substances,  as  well  as  in 
the  food  and  waste  matters  in  the  blood,  that  the 
osteopath  is  interested,  for  he,  like  his  forerunner, 
the  physician  of  the  old  school,  realizes  that 
health  depends  upon  the  perfect,  or  nearly  per- 
fect, equilibrium  that  maintains  between  the  poi- 
sons that  may  enter  the  blood  from  without, 
through  the  activities  of  germs  that  lodge  in  the 
body  (or  the  poisons  that  may  be  made  by  the 
body  itself) ,  and  the  neutralization  of  these  sub- 
stances by  anti-poisons  in  the  blood.  This  again 
is  what  is  called  immunity. 

144 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

Four  great  names  are  associated  with  the  rapid 
development  of  the  modern  era  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  blood.  These  are  Ehrlich,  Pfeiffer,  Bordet 
and  Metchnikoff.  Ehrlich  is  the  world-renowned 
pathologist  of  the  royal  serum  institute  at  Frank- 
fort. Pfeiffer  is  another  noted  German  investi- 
gator, who  has  done  much  to  advance  the  science 
of  the  blood.  Bordet  is  one  of  the  tireless  work- 
ers of  the  Pasteur  Institute  at  Paris,  and  Metch- 
nikoff, Russian  by  birth,  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
of  all  the  ingenious  experimenters  in  that  famous 
institution. 

If  the  osteopathic  physician  had  nothing  but  the 
facts  which  these  four  men  alone  have  added  to 
human  knowledge,  he  would  have  sufficient  to  ex- 
plain, on  scientific  grounds,  the  amazing  chemical 
mechanism  of  the  blood  and  the  tissues  that  un- 
derlie all  the  results  which  osteopathy  gets — often 
to  the  amazement  of  the  patient  and  the  old  school 
practitioner — in  the  treatment  of  diseases  which 
the  osteopath  handles  by  causing  blood  to  flow  in 
unusual  quantities  to  the  parts  of  the  body  in- 
volved, or  with  unusual  rapidity  to  all  parts  when 
toxic  substances  are  generally  distributed  or  by 
using  the  nerves  to  stimulate  the  cells  of  the  body 
in  their  efforts  to  manufacture  the  anti-poisons 
which  neutralize  the  poisons  absorbed. 

But  let  us  begin  with  Pfeiffer. 

It  had  been  known  that  normal  blood  serum 
(that  is,  the  clear,  straw-colored  fluid  that  sepa- 
rates naturally  from  clotted  blood)  would  kill 
certain  germs,  such  as  typhoid  or  cholera  bacilli. 
These  bacilli  are  exceedingly  minute  rod-like  bod- 

145 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ies  that  are  clearly  visible  only  in  the  highest  pow- 
ers of  the  microscope,  and  measure  in  length  about 
1/12,500  of  an  inch.  When  the  blood  of  a  guinea 
pig,  for  example,  is  shed,  and  some  of  the  clear 
serum  that  separates  out  from  the  clot  is  mixed 
with  some  living  typhoid  or  cholera  germs  stirred 
up  in  salt  solution,  the  living,  motile  germs  are 
suddenly  stricken  motionless  and  soon  are  partly 
dissolved,  or  eaten  away,  as  a  lump  of  sugar  is 
attacked  and  eaten  away  (dissolved)  by  water. 

This  fact  had  been  discovered  in  1888  by  a 
young  American,  Nuttall,  who  was  working  in  a 
German  laboratory.  One  year  later  a  German 
bacteriologist,  Bucher,  showed  that  if  such  a  ser- 
um be  heated  to  a  little  beyond  half  way  to  boil- 
ing (55  deg.  Centigrade)  it  would  no  longer 
destroy  the  living  germs. 

Moved  by  these  facts  Pfeiffer  decided  to  make 
an  experiment  with  a  living  animal,  in  order  to 
see  how  far  the  animal  could  be  made  to  destroy, 
in  its  proper  living  body,  the  living  virulent  germs 
of  cholera  or  typhoid.  Now  it  was  known  that 
an  untreated  normal  guinea  pig  had  the  power  of 
killing  and  dissolving  a  small  number  of  typhoid 
or  cholera  germs  when  the  germs  were  injected 
into  the  cavity  between  the  inner  wall  of  the  abdo- 
men and  the  outer  wall  of  the  intestine.  This  cav- 
ity is  called  the  peritoneal  cavity.  Pfeiffer  in- 
jected into  this  cavity  of  a  guinea  pig  increasing 
doses  of  living  cholera  germs  at  intervals  of  a  few 
days,  and  then  on  removing  some  of  the  fluids 
from  the  cavity  he  found  that  something  had  oc- 
curred in  the  blood  and  tissues  of  the  animal 

146 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

which  had  enable  it  to  kill  and  dissolve  the  in- 
creasing doses  of  the  deadly  germs,  without  the 
least  harm  to  the  animal  itself ! 

By  proceeding  in  this  manner,  gradually  in- 
creasing the  doses  of  the  deadly  germs,  as  the  ani- 
mal could  support  the  increase  without  harm, 
Pfeiffer  found  that  in  a  short  time  he  could  inject 
into  the  guinea  pig,  without  harming  it  in  the 
least,  enough  of  the  virulent  cholera  germs  to  kill 
one  hundred  ordinary  guinea  pigs  that  had  not 
been  so  treated — a,  dose  so  large  that  only  1-100 
of  such  dose,  or  even  much  less,  would  have  killed 
the  guinea  pig  had  it  been  injected  in  the  first 
place ! 

This  truly  interesting  fact  was  called  "Pfeiffer's 
phenomenon,"  and  he  first  published  an  account  of 
his  experiments  and  the  results  in  1894  in  the 
German  Journal  of  Hygiene. 

Immediately,  over  all  Europe,  in  all  the  labora- 
tories in  which  investigation  of  this  kind  was  go- 
ing on,  the  investigators  began  experiments  to 
carry  out  the  work  of  Pfeiffer,  to  check  it,  to  criti- 
cize it,  eternally  to  smash  it  to  pieces  if  it  were 
possible  to  do  so ;  eternally  to  nail  it  down  as  true, 
if  that  were  the  fact.  And  the  results  swiftly  veri- 
fied Pfeiffer's  findings ;  so  that  Pfeiffer's  phenom- 
enon took  its  place  among  the  proved  and  accepted 
facts  of  science,  with  large  and  important  effects, 
as  you  will  presently  see. 

But  Pfeiffer  had  done  more  than  this.  He  had 
shown  that  if  a  small  amount  of  the  serum  of 
such  an  "immunized"  animal — even  so  small  an 
amount  that  the  most  delicate  scientific  balance 

147 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

would  be  required  to  weigh  it  out,  so  small  we 
might  say  it  "amounted  virtually  to  nothing,"  as 
the  phrase  has  it — were  injected  into  another  or- 
dinary guinea  pig,  this  second  guinea  pig  could 
resist  without  harm  doses  of  the  virulent  germs 
which  otherwise  would  invariably  kill  it.  The  sec- 
ond animal  was  immunized  by  the  "immune  ser- 
um" of  the  first. 

LIVING  BODY  MANUFACTURES  SUBSTANCES 
THAT  PROTECT   IT 

Now  what  had  occurred  in  the  blood  and  the 
tissues  of  that  guinea  pig  that  caused  it  to  be 
able,  after  a  few  doses  of  the  deadly  germs,  to 
resist  without  feeling  it  a  dose  100  and  more 
times  large  enough  to  prove  invariably  fatal? 
Something  surely  had  occurred,  and  that  some- 
thing must  be  this :  that  the  presence,  in  ever  in- 
creasing quantities,  of  the  deadly  germs  in  the 
body  caused  the  body  itself  to  manufacture,  in 
ever  increasing  quantities,  certain  natural  pro- 
tective substances  which  would  kill  the  increasing 
number  of  germs ;  and  that  these  substances  were 
either  formed  directly  in  the  blood  itself,  or  were 
manufactured  by  cells  of  the  body  and  poured 
into  the  general  circulation. 

The  guinea  pig  in  the  first  place  was  slightly 
resistant  to  the  germs — had  already  in  its  blood 
a  little  of  the  substance  that  could  kill  and  dis- 
solve the  deadly  germs.  If  we  suppose  that  cer- 
tain cells  in  the  body  could  normally  manufacture 
a  little  of  that  substance  and  cast  it  into  the  blood 
stream,  and  that  the  presence  of  increasing  num- 
bers of  germs  would  stimulate  those  cells  to  over- 

148 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

activity — so  that  there  would  come  to  be  an  over- 
production of  that  substance;  that  there  was  an 
increasing  demand  for  this  natural  resisting  sub- 
stance which  could  destroy  the  germs  by  chemical 
action ;  and  that  this  demand  for  over-production 
was  promptly  met  by  the  cells  of  the  guinea  pig 
— why,  then,  we  would  have  an  explanation  of 
Pfeiffer's  phenomenon  sound  in  every  way. 

That  is  just  how  the  great  Paul  Ehrlich  pro- 
posed to  account  for  it,  and  actually  did  account 
for  it  with  his  luminous  "theory  of  immunity" 
which,  after  15  years  or  so  of  the  fiercest  kind 
of  battering  and  criticism  from  his  scientific  op- 
ponents, who  have  tried  every  conceivable  method 
of  proving  that  it  is  wrong,  is  still  staunch  and 
seaworthy  in  all  its  main  parts. 

THESE  FACTS   OF  IMMUNITY  EXPLAIN  OSTE- 
OPATHY'S RESULTS 

You  can  imagine  how  welcome  these  "facts  of 
immunity",  as  they  are  called,  have  proved  to  the 
osteopathic  physician,  who  has  seized  them  for 
his  own,  and  who,  by  their  significance,  can  ex- 
plain virtually  all  of  the  otherwise  incomprehensi- 
ble results  he  gets  in  the  treatment  of  germ  dis- 
eases, and  other  diseases  to  which  the  theory  of 
immunity  applies. 

If  you  can  imagine  that  the  cells  of  the  human 
body  normally  produce  a  small  amount  of  anti- 
poison, or  anti-germ  substance  (just  as  the  normal 
guinea  pig  does  against  cholera  and  typhoid),  you 
can  easily  comprehend  how  (as  in  the  case  of  the 
guinea  pig)  the  cells  of  the  human  would  be  moved 
to  over-production  of  that  anti-substance  when 

149 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

an  invasion  of  germs  takes  place.  But — is  it  not 
entirely  probable  that  a  certain  interesting  thing 
would  occur,  were  the  cells  not  able  of  themselves 
to  meet  the  demand  for  over-production  of  the 
resisting  substance  ?  Is  it  not  probable  that  if  the 
blood  were  poured  in  increasing  quantities  (more 
than  natural)  to  the  affected  parts,  or  the  seat  of 
the  invasion — that  if  the  blood  were  quickened 
more  than  naturally  in  its  general  circulation — 
that  if  the  producing  cells  were  indirectly  stimu- 
lated by  stimulation  of  the  nerves  by  osteopathic 
methods  of  nerve  stimulation,  there  would  nat- 
urally follow  an  over-production  of  the  resisting 
anti-poison  far  greater  in  amount  than  would  fol- 
low the  stimulation  caused  by  the  presence  of  the 
germs  alone? 

The  answer  is  that  it  is  not  only  probable,  but 
doubtless  true :  for  if  it  be  not  true,  there  is  no 
conceivable  way  of  accounting  for  the  facts  which 
are  the  common  experience  of  every  osteopathic 
physician. 

I  believe  that  if  the  doctors  of  the  older  school 
were  to  study  the  facts  of  immunity  as  they  have 
been  developed  by  the  investigators  of  Europe 
(and  the  old  school  doctors  are  notably  short- 
handed  in  their  exact  knowledge  of  these  luminous 
facts),  and  were  then  to  study  the  results  of  oste- 
opathic treatment  with  these  facts  in  mind,  they 
would  not  be  disposed  to  doubt  the  results,  or 
what  we  call  the  "cures,"  effected  by  osteopathic 
treatment.  For  after  all,  it  is  nature — the  cells 
and  the  blood — ^that  do  the  work  when,  with  the 

150 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

conditions  not  too  much  against  him,  the  oste- 
opath undertakes  the  treatment  of  disease. 

Let  us  now  return  to  Pfeiffer. 

After  Pfeiffer's  publication,  Gruber  began  a 
research  in  the  effects  of  the  serum  of  animals 
injected  with  typhoid  germs,  and  found  that  the 
serum  of  such  an  animal,  if  mixed  with  living  ty- 
phoid germs,  would  cause  the  germs  to  become 
motionless,  and  to  draw  together  in  lumps,  or 
clumps — ^the  phenomenon  called  "agglutination" 
(from  the  Greek  word  which  means  glue,  or 
"stickiness").  But  this  had  a  tremendous  effect 
on  the  diagnosis  of  typhoid  fever  in  man.  Pfeiffer 
had  proved  that  the  guinea  pig  injected  with  chol- 
era germs  was  resistant  in  such  powerful  degree 
only  against  cholera — ^not  against  any  other  germ ! 
The  injection  of  cholera  germs  did  not  make  it 
resistant  to  any  other  germ  whatever.  Other 
germs,  say  typhoid,  would  kill  it  in  the  customary 
doses.  We  therefore  say  that  the  injection  of 
increasingly  large  doses  of  cholera  germs  immun- 
izes the  animal  to  cholera  only ;  that  the  injection 
of  increasingly  large  doses  of  typhoid  germs  im- 
munizes the  animal  only  to  typhoid  germs,  and 
to  no  other  germ  whatever. 

That  is  to  say:  the  resisting  substance  which 
typhoid  germs  cause  the  cells  of  the  body  nat- 
urally to  manufacture  will  be  resistant  only  to 
typhoid  germs ;  the  resistance  naturally  manufac- 
tured by  the  cells  in  response  to  the  injection  of 
cholera  germs  is  resistant  only  to  cholera  germs, 
and  to  none  other.  This  property  of  the  resistant 
substance  is  called  its  specificity — ^that  is,  it  is 

151 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

specific  for  cholera  or  for  typhoid.  The  substance 
which  kills  cholera  germs  will  have  no  effect  what- 
ever on  typhoid  germs,  and  vice  versa.  In  other 
words,  each  antidote,  or  "anti-body"  manufac- 
tured naturally  by  the  body  to  resist  a  special 
germ  is  specific  for  the  particular  germ  against 
which  it  is  directed.  So  that  a  guinea  pig  immune 
to  cholera  can  easily  be  killed  by  typhoid. 

HOW  THE  "WIDAL  TEST"  TO  DETECT  TYPHOID 
WORKS  OUT 

Now  this  being  the  case,  Gruber,  and  also  the 
Frenchman  Widal,  saw  a  good  opportunity  of 
using  this  specificity  of  the  anti-poison  to  diagnose 
typhoid  fever.  For,  very  often,  it  is  impossible 
for  the  physician  to  say  whether  or  not  his  patient 
has  typhoid  fever  or  some  other  infectious  disease. 
Sometimes  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  a 
patient  has  typhoid,  or  malaria,  or  even  tubercu- 
losis, or  some  other  infectious  disease,  the  signs 
of  which  are  not  always  clear  and  positive  in 
their  pointing. 

But  Gruber  and  Widal  were  struck  by  this  pos- 
sibility :  If  the  serum  of  an  animal  inoculated  with 
typhoid  germs  possessed  the  power  of  causing  the 
little  rod-like  germs  of  typhoid  to  be  struck  mo- 
tionless and  to  stick  together  in  lumps,  or  clumps 
(agglutination),  and  if  this  lumping,  or  aggluti- 
nation, of  typhoid  germs  could  be  caused  by  no 
serum  excepting  one  of  an  animal  that  had  been 
infected  by  the  typhoid  germ  itself,  why,  then,  if 
living  typhoid  were  added  to  the  serum  of  a 
patient  suspected  of  typhoid  fever  and    if    the 

152 


FOUNDER    OF     OSTEOPATHY 

lumping,  or  clumping,  followed,  there  could  be  no 
doubt  whatever  that  the  patient  was  infected  with 
typhoid  fever. 

The  test  is  made  in  this  way :  A  little  blood  is 
taken  from  the  patient  and  the  serum  allowed  to 
separate  out.  The  serum  is  then  diluted  25,  50, 
100  and  150  times  with  salt  solution.  With  a 
drop  of  each  dilution  is  mixed  a  little  of  living 
typhoid  germs.  Then  some  of  the  germs  are  also 
mixed  with  a  drop  of  bouillon,  and  some  with  a 
drop  of  plain  salt  solution,  and  all  the  drops  are 
examined  in  the  microscope.  If  the  patient  has 
typhoid  fever,  clumping  of  the  germs  takes  place 
in  drops  of  the  patient's  blood-rserum  that  have 
been  diluted  up  to  100.  It  does  not  take  place  in 
the  drops  of  bouillon  or  of  salt  solution,  which 
are  called  "controls";  that  is,  they  control  the 
experiment;  for  if  the  clumping  occurred  in  the 
bouillon  or  the  salt  solution  also,  one  could  not 
be  sure  that  the  clumping  was  caused  only  by  the 
serum  of  the  patient.  To  make  assurance  doubly 
sure  the  test  should  be  made  with  a  drop  of  serum 
known  to  have  the  clumping  power.  Then  if  the 
clumping  takes  place  in  this  drop  and  also  in  the 
drop  of  the  patient's  serum,  and  not  in  the  drops 
of  bouillon  or  salt  solution,  the  diagnosis  is  sure. 

OSTEOPATHY  ASSISTS  MAKING  OF  LIFE-SAVING 
ANTI-BODIES 

Of  course  this  is  all  wonderfully  interesting 
work,  and  is  literally  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
and  valuable  contributions  to  human  knowledge; 
but  you  must  understand  that  its  main  value  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  helps  the  physician  to  diagnose 

153 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

typhoid.  The  laboratories  of  our  city  health  de- 
partments usually  make  the  test  free  of  charge 
and  private  laboratories  make  it  for  a  fee,  but  it 
does  not  at  all  help  the  healer  to  treat  or  to  cure 
typhoid  fever.  When  the  physician  takes  a  drop 
of  the  patient's  blood  to  test  it  for  typhoid  fever, 
you  should  know  (if  he  does  not  so  inform  you) 
that  the  test  will  help  him  only  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  presence  or  absence  of  the  disease,  and  not 
in  any  manner  whatever  to  find  a  cure. 

The  osteopath  likewise  uses  the  test  (when  in 
doubt)  only  to  satisfy  himself  of  the  presence  of 
the  typhoid  germs. 

But,  unlike  the  doctor  of  the  old  school,  he  does 
not  then  stand  idly  by  and  wait  for  nature  to 
win  or  lose  the  momentous  battle  being  fought  in 
the  patient's  blood,  but  proceeds  actively  to  assist 
nature,  first  by  adjusting  any  existing  anatomical 
abnormalities  in  the  spine  or  elsewhere  in  the 
body  (according  to  osteopathic  technique),  and  if 
none  are  present,  by  stimulating  the  spinal  nerves 
and  thus  energizing  cells  that  in  all  probability  are 
doing  all  they  can  to  manufacture  the  anti-poisons 
which  alone,  by  their  presence  in  the  patient's 
blood,  destroy  the  germs.  These  natural  resisting 
substances  destroy  the  germs  actually ;  and  there 
need  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  increase  of  these 
substances  in  the  patient's  blood  that  always  saves 
the  patient's  life. 

There  is  no  way  known  to  science  of  making  a 
serum  that  will  cure  typhoid  fever,  and  this  is 
probably  so  because  it  is  necessary  to  kill  the 
Sperms  themselves.      Vaccines  and  serums  have 

154 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

been  prepared  that  are  claimed  by  some  to  be  pre- 
ventive ;  that  is,  if  a  person  is  about  to  be  exposed 
to  the  germs  these  serums  and  vaccines  are  said 
to  prevent  the  infection,  but  it  is  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult to  say  whether  the  results  are  positive  or  the 
reverse.  These  experiments,  for  the  most  part, 
are  made  upon  soldiers  in  active  army  service. 
The  general  public  has  shown  little  or  no  disposi- 
tion to  submit  to  such  experiments. 

ACTUAL  INVESTIGATORS  PUT  FORTH  NO  CLAIMS 
AS  TO  CURES 

In  no  case  are  these  claims  made  by  any  of  the 
scientific  experimenters  and  discoverers  of  the 
rank  referred  to  but  by  the  commercial  pharma- 
ceutical houses  which  make  money  out  of  putting 
forth  every  conceivable  kind  of  "cures",  as  fast 
as  any  new  theory  comes  out  to  make  new  experi- 
mental preparations  possible.  These  experimental 
serums  are  urged  upon  the  credulity  of  practicing 
physicians  by  relentless  advertising  campaigns,  by 
glib  canvassers  who  leave  free  samples  and  back 
up  each  new  thing  in  turn  with  the  most  sanguine 
and  often  groundless  claims  for  efficacy.  When 
such  serums  are  administered  by  physicians  it  is 
the  solemn  truth  999  times  in  any  1,000  chance 
instances  that  it  is  at  the  hands  of  those  entirely 
unacquainted  with  the  facts  of  immunity  here  be- 
ing set  forth,  and,  practically  speaking,  in  no  case 
could  the  physician  who  injects  these  artificially- 
prepared  serums,  taken  from  the  bodies  of  the 
lower  animals,  go  into  the  laboratory  of  these  ex- 
perimenters referred  to  (or  others  like  them)  and 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

have  the  least  knowledge  of  their  work — the  rea- 
sons, methods,  technique  or  signification  of  their 
experiments. 

So,  the  occasional  supposed  up-to-the-minute 
physician  who  injects  animal  serums  to  cure  dis- 
ease like  typhoid  and  passes  in  his  community  for 
"an  advanced  man  of  science"  really  knows  no 
more  about  what  he  is  actually  doing — if  any- 
thing, he  knows  even  less  of  what  he  is  doing — 
than  he  did  but  recently  when  he  had  some  special 
drug  (or  several  special  drugs)  to  prescribe  in 
every  case  of  disease  without  in  the  least  under- 
standing anything  about  drug  reactions  on  the 
human  body,  for  indeed  that  whole  subject  of  drug 
reactions  on  our  living  bodies  is  not  understood 
to  this  day. 

If  in  any  single  disease  like  diphtheria  there 
really  seems  to  be  ground  to  hope  that  antitoxin 
is  efficacious,  after  hundreds  of  thousands  of  appli- 
cations, the  doctor  who  uses  it  is  still  empirical, 
is  still  "going  it  blind",  is  still  experimenting,  is 
still  "practicing"  upon  the  vitality  of  his  patients 
in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word.  This  statement 
of  actual  facts  mirrors  a  very  different  state  of 
uncertainty  from  what  the  public  is  generally  led 
to  believe  through  optimistic  medical  claims 
printed  in  the  daily  newspapers. 

Actual  treatment  for  typhoid  fever  is  impossi- 
ble, therefore,  by  any  rational  and  proven  means 
unless  osteopathy  be  resorted  to,  and  it  is  signifi- 
cant that  osteopaths  report  excellent  results  in  the 
treatment  of  this  disease.  The  foremost  medical 
men  admit  that  their  treatment  of  typhoid  (and 

156 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

other  such  ills)  is  now  drugless  and  is  confined 
solely  to  good  nursing.  Osteopathy  affords  these 
cases  an  efficacious  treatment  plus  good  nursing. 

And  what  is  true  of  tjrphoid  is  true  of  other 
germ  diseases. 

I  have  spoken  of  typhoid  simply  to  illustrate  the 
general  facts  of  the  blood.  These  results  are  un- 
questionably due  to  the  stimulation  by  osteopathic 
treatment  of  the  special  cells  in  the  body  (or  per- 
haps general  stimulation)  which  produce  the  sub- 
stance, or  substances,  that  destroy  the  germs  and 
ultimately  render  the  patient  immune  to  the  dis- 
ease. For  it  is  a  fact  that  a  person  having  recov- 
ered from  typhoid  (or  from  any  other  germ  dis- 
ease, even  a  common  "cold")  is  immune  to  that 
disease  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  thereafter. 
Were  such  a  person  not  immune  after  recovery 
he  could  never  have  recovered  at  all — such  a  won- 
derful mechanism  is  that  mechanism  called  im- 
munity. 

STILL  FORETOLD  WHAT  LATER  RESEARCH 
HAS  ESTABLISHED 

Here  we  see  again  where  the  osteopath  was  on 
the  right  track  for  a  long  time  without  knowing 
the  entire  reason  why — on  the  right  track  even 
before  Ehrlich  and  Behring,  Pfeiffer  and  Bordet, 
Gruber  and  Widal  and  the  rest  of  the  great  Euro- 
pean scientists  had  made  their  investigations ;  for 
you  will  remember  that  A.  T.  Still,  M.  D.,  founder 
of  the  osteopathic  school,  many  years  ago  an- 
nounced that  the  only  cure  for  disease  lay  in  the 
nature  of  the  tissues  and  of  the  blood  themselves. 
For  some  years  now  the  modem,  scientific  osteo- 

157 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

path  has  understood  what  he  is  doing,  and  it 
would  pay  the  old  school  doctors  to  look  into  the 
osteopath's  methods  and  theory,  together  with 
their  results. 

Before  the  revelations  of  laboratory  investiga- 
tion made  it  possible  for  the  osteopath  to  explain 
the  results  he  got,  he  got  results  notwithstanding ; 
and  in  this  just  as  in  other  fields,  the  art  preceded, 
outran  the  science  in  its  unfolding. 

SCIENCE  PROVES  CURE  OF  DISEASE  LIES  IN 
BLOOD  AND  TISSUES 

But  let  us  figure  a  little  on  what  Bordet,  the 
Frenchman,  did  with  the  blood.  Bordet,  working 
as  one  of  the  associates  of  the  great  Metchnikoff 
in  the  Pasteur  Institute  at  Paris,  had  been  experi- 
menting with  cholera  germs  and  the  blood  of 
goats,  and  one  of  his  observations  led  him  to  make 
the  following  experiments :  He  took  a  little  blood 
from  a  rabbit  and  injected  it  into  a  guinea  pig. 
This  he  did  three  or  four  times.  Then  he  bled 
the  guinea  pig,  and  taking  some  of  the  blood  ser- 
um— ^the  colorless  fluid  of  the  blood  from  which 
the  red  corpuscles  had  been  removed — he  mixed 
with  this  serum  some  of  the  red  corpuscles  from 
the  blood  of  a  rabbit.  Rapidly  and  intensely  the 
serum  of  the  guinea  pig  dissolved  the  red  corpus- 
cles of  the  rabbit — just  like  the  cholera  germs 
were  dissolved  in  "Pfeiffer's  phenomenon". 

Do  you  not  see  the  meaning  of  this  remarkable 
fact?  The  red  blood  corpuscles  of  the  rabbit  had 
acted  as  a  dangerous  poison  to  the  body  of  the 
guinea  pig,  and  the  guinea  pig's  cells,  to  protect 
the  guinea  pig  against  the  invading  poisonous 

158 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

blood  of  the  rabbit,  produced  antidotes,  or  anti- 
bodies, which  would  promptly  destroy  the  invad- 
ers. This  protecting  substance  in  the  guinea  pig's 
blood  had  a  most  wonderfully  destructive  effect 
upon  the  living  red  corpuscles  of  the  rabbit.  The 
moment  the  rabbit's  red  corpuscles  were  mixed 
with  the  clear  serum  of  the  guinea  pig  they  be- 
gan to  dissolve — to  be  eaten  away,  as  a  lump  of 
sugar  is  eaten  away,  or  dissolved,  by  water;  and 
presently,  of  the  many  millions  of  these  minute 
microscopic  bi-concave  straw-colored  disks  (called 
the  red  corpuscles)  that  had  been  mixed  with  the 
clear  serum  of  the  guinea  pig,  not  one  remained 
intact. 

Furthermore,  Bordet  made  other  experiments 
by  which  he  proved  that  this  quickly  acquired  pro- 
tecting power  of  the  guinea  pig's  blood  against  the 
blood  of  the  rabbit  was  effective  only  against  the 
blood  of  the  rabbit,  and  against  the  blood  of  no 
other  animal,  against  which  the  guinea  pig's 
serum  did  not  have  a  natural  solvent  power.  This 
anti-rabbit  blood  power  was  acquired  by  the 
guinea  pig's  blood  only  on  the  injection  into  the 
guinea  pig  of  rabbit's  blood.  For  guinea  pig's 
serum  will  not  naturally  dissolve  the  blood  cells 
of  the  rabbit.  To  do  so  the  animal  must  first  be 
injected  with  rabbit's  blood  cells. 

Now  this  little  experiment  with  the  serum  of 
the  little  animal  called  the  guinea  pig  and  the 
blood  corpuscles  of  the  rabbit  demonstrated  a  fact 
of  tremendous  value  to  mankind.  It  added  an- 
other to  the  many  practical  proofs  that  were  then 
in  process  of  accumulation,  of  the  almost  infinite 

159 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

capacity  of  which  the  animal  body  (including  the 
human  body,  of  course)  is  possessed,  not  only  to 
resist  disease  germs,  whether  they  be  bacteria, 
or  the  blood  cells  of  other  animals,  but  also  to 
resist  them  and  destroy  them  to  an  extent  infin- 
itely more  vast  than  is  necessary  for  the  bare 
preservation  of  life  and  health !  The  vastness  of 
this  resisting  power  newly  made  in  the  body  of 
such  an  animal,  or  of  such  an  infected  person, 
reminds  one  of  the  stories  told  by  early  travelers 
in  China.  When  a  stranger  (foreign  devil,  the 
Chinese  call  them)  would  appear  in  a  neighbor- 
hood, 5,000  or  10,000  Chinese  would  rush  out  at 
him  to  kill  him,  or  otherwise  safeguard  the  com- 
munity from  possible  harm.  The  Chinese  were 
taking  no  chances ;  and  the  body's  "chemical  sol- 
diers", the  anti-bodies,  (as  also  the  body's  "sol- 
dier-cells", the  leucocytes,  of  which  I  will  speak 
later)  act  on  the  same  principle.  Foreign  red- 
blood  corpuscles,  or  dangerous  bacteria,  rouse  up 
by  their  presence  in  the  body,  a  million  times 
more  than  is  necessary  of  the  substances  that 
destroy  the  particular  blood  corpuscles  or  disease 
germs  that  threaten  danger. 

Does  not  the  recital  of  these  interesting  facts 
tend  to  convince  you  that  the  sole  source  of  re- 
sistance to  and  cure  of  disease  lies  in  the  tissues 
and  the  blood  themselves,  and  not  in  anything 
whatsover  (whether  drug  or  otherwise)  that 
can  be  stuffed  into  the  body  from  without?  It 
should. 

Indeed,  it  is  these  very  facts  which  during  the 
past  twenty  years  have  struck  down  the  drug  sys- 

160 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

tern  of  medicine,  so  that  intelligent,  up-to-date, 
scientifically  educated  doctors  (and  they  are  very 
few,  by  the  way)  never  give  drugs  to  their 
patients,  excepting  when  the  patient  will  not  be 
satisfied  until  he  or  she  is  being  fed  on  drugs ;  and 
even  then  the  wise  doctor  of  the  old  school  hesi- 
tates, for  he  knows  that  in  the  end  he  is  bound  to 
lose  his  patient — in  all  probability  to  an  osteopath. 
It  is  part  of  the  mission  of  the  osteopath  to  edu- 
cate the  public  in  the  discoveries  that  have  been 
made  (and  are  being  made)  in  the  great  labora- 
tories of  the  world  in  this  very  line  of  infection 
and  immunity.  For  with  sufficient  education  in 
this  respect  an  intelligent  public  will  be  able  to 
understand  the  osteopathic  theory  of  treatment, 
and  have  some  real  knowledge  of  the  great  scien- 
tific truths  of  which  the  practical  results  of  oste- 
opathic therapy  are  the  natural  and  logical  out- 
growth. 

EHRLICH  PROVED  OUR  NATURAL  BLOOD  RESIS- 
TANCE   TO    DISEASE 

I  wish  now  to  say  a  few  words  about  some  of 
the  things  which  the  great  Paul  Ehrlich  did  to 
advance  our  knowledge  of  the  blood  in  health  and 
disease,  for  perhaps  there  is  no  one  man  who  has 
done  so  many  original  and  deep-reaching  things 
as  the  world-renowned  investigator  at  Frankfort. 
Not  long  ago  somebody  said  that,  were  it  not  for 
Ehrlich,  the  world  would  not  know  any  more 
about  the  blood  today  than  it  did  before  Ehrlich 
was  born.  That  is  saying  a  good  deal,  and  yet 
it  is  approximately  true.  Not  that  Ehrlich 
found  any  cure  for  any  disease,  for  the  truth  is 

161 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

that  he  did  not.  In  German,  the  word  Ehrlich 
means  honest,  and  if  there  is  one  thing  Ehrlich 
was  he  was  honest.  He  tried  to  find  a  cure  for 
the  disease  syphilis,  and  it  was  hoped  he  would 
succeed  before  he  died,  but  he  never  made  any 
claims  for  anything,  nor  indeed  did  any  other  of 
the  great  investigators  in  immunity.  They  do 
not  look  so  much  for  cures  as  they  look  for  facts 
about  the  conditions  under  which  the  body  resists 
or  succumbs  to  disease  in  a  natural  way.  You 
must  understand  that  neither  Ehrlich  nor  any  of 
these  other  investigators  mentioned  were  physi- 
cians. They  were  all  laboratory  experimentalists. 
Their  incentive  was  to  find  out  the  facts  of  the 
body — not  to  develop  cures. 

Ten  years  before  this  modem  idea  of  natural 
resistance  and  natural  cure  for  disease  began  to 
get  itself  a  shape,  Ehrlich  was  studying  human 
blood  and  the  blood  of  animals.  The  blood  of  ani- 
mals is  studied  because  it  is  as  interesting  to  the 
man  of  science  as  is  human  blood,  and  its  study 
very  often  enables  the  investigator  to  understand 
certain  facts  about  the  human  blood  which,  if 
studied  by  themselves,  would  be  incomprehensible. 
Thus  we  can  interpret  the  meaning  of  certain 
facts  of  human  blood  more  clearly  by  the  study  of 
the  blood  of  animals  than  we  can  by  the  study  of 
the  human  blood  itself. 

Ehrlich,  however,  spent  most  of  his  time,  in 
those  old  days,  in  the  study  of  human  blood ;  and 
were  it  not  for  him,  it  would  be  quite  impossible 
for  the  surgeon  today  to  predict  whether  his 

162 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

patient  would  in  all  probability  die  of  septicaemia, 
or  blood  poisoning. 

In  order  to  facilitate  his  understanding  of  the 
blood  Ehrlich  found  it  necessary  to  make  a  very 
complete  study  of  the  chemistry  of  numerous  col- 
ors used  in  the  dye  industries.  These  he  studied 
in  relation  to  the  white,  or  colorless,  corpuscles 
of  the  blood.  By  using  various  dyes  he  was  able 
to  prove  that  there  were  several  different  species 
of  these  white  corpuscles  in  the  blood,  whereas 
this  was  not  known  previously.  The  red  corpus- 
cles of  the  normal  blood  are  all  much  the  same 
size,  and  otherwise  uniform,  each  being  a  slightly 
bi-concave  disk  about  8-25,000  of  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter. Of  these  there  are  about  5,000,000,000  in 
every  61-1,000  of  a  cubic  inch  of  the  blood.  The 
leucocytes,  or  white  corpuscles,  are  mostly  some- 
what larger,  however,  and  there  are  several  dis- 
tinct kinds,  which  vary  in  shape,  size  and  chem- 
ical nature.  They  are  far  less  numerous,  number- 
ing only  about  8,000,000  on  the  average  in  every 
61-1,000  of  a  cubic  inch  of  blood — a  ratio  of  say, 
8  to  5,000.  Of  the  total  number  of  white  corpus- 
cles about  60  to  70  per  cent  are  the  now  celebrated 
"soldier  cells",  or  phagocytes,  of  the  blood,  that 
are  known  to  eat  and  destroy  disease  germs  that 
enter  the  body. 

Ehrlich,  by  his  use  of  the  dyes  already  referred 
to,  succeeded  in  classifying  these  white  corpus- 
cles in  such  a  way  that  diagnosis  of  disease  by 
the  blood  was  made  possible.  The  white  blood 
corpuscles  (and  likewise  the  red  corpuscles)  are 
changed  by  certain  diseases — changed  in  appear- 

163 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ance,  and  changed  in  their  relative  numbers — and 
Ehrlich  did  far  more  than  any  other  one  man  to 
perfect  the  methods  by  which  these  changes  are 
known  and  recognized. 

Understand  well  that  neither  Ehrlich,  nor  any 
other  investigator  of  his  kind,  has  found,  or  even 
sought  especially  to  find,  cures  for  these  diseases. 
He  has  found  ways  of  identifying  the  disease  by 
an  examination  of  the  blood.  But  that  is  all. 
When  the  natural  tendency  of  the  body  to  restore 
itself  to  the  normal  has  won  the  day,  the  blood 
cells  tell  the  story,  and  use  is  made  of  these  facts 
in  determining  whether  the  patient  is  improving 
or  otherwise. 

Ehrlich,  in  addition  to  all  this  work,  was  the 
only  one  who  could  devise  a  theory  to  account  for 
all  the  remarkable  phenomena  (and  they  are  ex- 
ceedingly numerous  and  highly  complex)  which 
investigators  like  Pfeiffer  and  Bordet  (to  say 
nothing  of  Ehrlich,  who  discovered  many  new  and 
interesting  facts  of  this  kind,  himself)  found  out. 
And  the  name  of  Ehrlich  will  probably  remain 
known  for  many  centuries  as  that  of  the  most 
original  investigator  in  this  line  that  appeared 
at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  and  the  beginning  of 
the  twentieth  centuries. 

OUR  WHITE  BLOOD   CELLS   ALSO   DESTROY 
DISEASE  GERMS 

Lastly,  let  me  recite  only  one  discovery  made 
by  the  fourth  great  creator  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  blood — Metchnikoff .  It  was  Metchnikoff  who, 
in  1883,  in  the  Annals  of  the  Zoological  Institute  of 
Vienna,  first  announced  the  fact  that  certain  white 

164 


FOUNDER    OF     OSTEOPATHY 

corpuscles  of  the  blood  possessed  the  power  of 
engorging  or  eating  the  germs  of  disease,  and  it 
was  for  long  thereafter  assumed  that  these  sol- 
dier-like cells  of  the  blood  were  the  only  protec- 
tion the  body  had  against  disease-making  germs. 
These  white  corpuscles  are  tiny  spherules,  little 
microscopic  globes  of  protoplasm,  about  9-25,000 
of  an  inch  in  diameter.  A  single  germ  of  disease 
is  very  much  smaller,  so  that  the  white  "soldier 
cell"  can  take  it  in — can  take  several  such  germs 
into  itself.  The  germs  thus  taken  in  (ingested, 
it  is  called)  are  killed  by  the  cell,  but  the  little 
soldier  cell  loses  its  own  life,  too,  in  the  combat. 
The  dead  white  corpuscle — killed  in  the  defense  of 
the  body — is  cast  off  by  the  body ;  and  where  great 
numbers  of  these  dead  white  corpuscles  are  gath- 
ered together  in  an  infected  wound,  or  other  in- 
fected place,  they  are  known  as  pus.  So,  when 
you  see  pus  in  a  wound,  or  other  sore  spot,  you 
may  know  that  this  yellow  pus  is  in  reality  mil- 
lions of  the  dead  soldier-cells  that  have  lost  their 
lives  in  the  defense  of  your  body.  Isn^t  this  highly 
interesting? 

This  was  the  main  discovery  of  MetchnikofF, 
and  surely  it  was  worth  making. 

OSTEOPATHIC    PRACTICE    UPHELD    BY    ALL 
BIOLOGIC   DISCOVERY 

I  have  told  you  only  a  few  little  facts  about  the 
blood,  and  have  tried  to  bring  home  to  you  the 
lesson  that,  while  science  has  done  much  to  ascer- 
tain the  facts  of  health  and  disease,  it  has  done 
next  to  nothing  to  give  mankind  a  proportionate 
measure  of  relief.    It  has  given  us,  however,  the 

165 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

most  excellent  reasons  for  understanding  better 
ttian  ever  before  the  solid  and  safe  theory  upon 
which  the  practice  of  osteopathy  is  founded,  not 
in  one  of  its  parts,  but  in  all ;  and  if  this  lesson  is 
rightly  taken  the  reader  should  begin  to  see  why 
osteopathy  is  a  growing  school  and  the  ranks  of 
its  practitioners  are  yearly  enlarging  with  re- 
cruits from  the  most  intelligent  and  enlightened 
men  and  women  in  America. 

Osteopathy  is  the  one  system  of  treatment 
which  demonstrates  in  practice  that  it  is  able  to 
help  and  hasten  these  processes  that  prepare  the 
blood  to  rout  disease.  It  is  able  in  a  practical  way 
to  increase  blood  flow  to  the  particular  organs 
that  are  diseased  which,  then  more  than  ever,  need 
the  healing  blood  stream,  with  its  mysterious  gift 
of  anti-bodies,  potent  for  protection  and  recovery. 

This,  then,  is  the  contribution  which  the  great 
Still,  of  America,  has  added  to  the  work  of  his 
compatriots  in  blood-research,  of  Europe,  namely, 
the  discovery  of  a  practical  way  to  control  and 
use  the  circulation,  through  controlling  the  nerv- 
ous system,  for  the  practical  cure  of  disease. 
When  this  knowledge  was  applied  by  him  as  a  new 
form  of  therapeutics,  he  developed  a  complete  sys- 
tem or  science  of  healing  called  osteopathy.  Now 
you  are  in  a  position  to  understand  why  this  sys- 
tem of  practice  is  drugless.  There  is  this  addi- 
tional noteworthy  fact,  too,  that  while  both  scien- 
tific and  medical  thinkers  today  largely  devote 
themselves  to  perfecting  diagnosis  to  recognize 
diseases  but  not  to  cure  them,  Still  has  given  the 
world  a  cure,  a  system  of  treatment  that  in  a  per- 

166 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

fectly  natural  way  helps  the  body  to  resist  and 
overoome  the  agencies  that  make  for  its  destruc- 
tion. And  this  osteopathic  way  of  purifying  the 
living  blood  stream  has  the  merit  of  efficiency  both 
as  a  prophylaxis — that  is,  as  a  preventive  of  dis- 
ease— and  as  a  cure. 

WHY    OSTEOPATHS    COMPRISE    A    DISTINCT 
PROFESSION 

Thus  it  comes  about  that,  while  drug-school 
physicians,  inspired  by  all  this  laboratory  investi- 
gation outside  the  profession,  have  been  experi- 
menting in  the  hope  of  finding  cures  for  all  infec- 
tious diseases  by  the  avenue  of  "serum  therapy" 
— that  is,  by  introducing  into  the  human  blood 
stream  the  serum  of  lower  animals  that  has  been 
first  infected  with  and  then  immunized  to  these 
diseases — thereby  going  about  tne  solution  of  the 
problem  in  a  wholly  artificial  way,  osteopathic  in- 
vestigators have  approached  the  task  from  a 
totally  different  angle — in  fact,  from  the  very  op- 
posite direction,  by  commanding,  utilizing,  direct- 
ing and  reinforcing  the  recuperative  resources  of 
the  body  itself,  and  this  through  perfectly  natural 
and  harmless  means.  Happily  for  human  welfare, 
they  have  gone  a  long  way  toward  solving  the 
problem. 

By  their  system  of  manipulative  therapy  the 
osteopaths  treat  the  human  body  itself.  Instead 
of  dealing  with  lower  animals  first,  they  treat  the 
patient  immediately  and  solely ;  they  do  not  arti- 
ficially introduce  poison  from  lower  animals  into 
the  human  body,  at  all ;  but  they  make  all  needed 
tissue  adjustments  and  harmonize  all  the  opera- 

167 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

tions  of  the  human  organism  so  that  without  let 
or  hindrance  it  may  be  able  to  prepare  its  own 
natural  defensive  substances  as  needed ;  and,  then, 
further,  by  their  art  of  stimulating  the  body's 
cells  through  work  upon  the  nervous  system — 
which  in  response  demonstrates  the  mysterious 
power  of  releasing  increase  of  cell  energy  wher- 
ever this  stimulation  is  applied — ^they  enable  the 
body  in  a  practical  way  to  manufacture  its  own 
anti-bodies,  or  contra-poisons,  or  antidotes  which 
rout  the  disease  germs,  thus  causing  recovery 
from  the  disease. 

Discovering,  as  Still  did,  that  this  was  possi- 
ble in  a  thoroughly  practical  way — when  confined 
to  the  hands  of  practitioners  trained  in  his  method 
of  observation,  reasoning  and  technique — consti- 
tutes one  of  the  gigantic  achievements  of  the  hu- 
man mind  when  measured  by  its  power  for  good 
to  the  human  species. 

This  discovery — ^that  the  forces  of  the  body  may 
be  applied  by  the  trained  physician  through  in- 
telligent manipulation — was  made  one  of  the  foun- 
dation stones  of  osteopathic  science ;  and  it  early 
revealed  the  necessity  of  developing  a  new  and 
distinct  profession  with  a  differently  trained  body 
of  practitioners  who  would  apply  these  funda- 
mental facts  of  science  to  the  care  of  the  body 
in  a  wholly  new  and  revolutionary  manner. 
Hence  the  practice  of  osteopathy  as  it  is  known 
today. 

Of  course  in  a  brief  popular  discussion  you  will 
appreciate  that  it  is  only  possible  to  present  some 
one  aspect  of  a  subject  as  profound  and  complex 
as  osteopathy  and  the  group  of  underlying  sci- 

168 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ences  on  which  it  is  based.  No  doubt  there  arises 
at  this  moment  a  number  of  questions  you  would 
like  to  ask  about  these  matters  to  bridge  the  gap 
of  your  present  knowledge.  I  wish  there  were  op- 
portunity to  anticipate  your  perplexities  here. 
You  surely  cannot  as  yet  hold  very  clear  or  ade- 
quate conception  of  what  osteopathy  is  and  does 
and  how  it  does  it  if  your  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject is  confined  to  what  you  learn  in  such  a  brief 
presentation.  But  what  you  have  considered  is 
fundamental,  and  without  understanding  these 
matters  somewhat  you  never  could  have  any  real 
insight  into  all  the  wonderful  things  which  are 
taking  place  in  the  body  whenever  an  osteopath 
treats  his  patient.  Now  you  have  a  glimmering 
of  it — and  in  other  chapters  I  have  endeavored 
to  tell  the  story  in  a  different  way,  easy  to  under- 
stand if  you  keep  these  main  facts  in  mind  that 
you  have  learned  about  the  body's  twin  mysteries 
of  immunity  and  infection. 


169 


CHAPTER  IX 

BODY  CHEMISTRY,  GERMS  AND 
OSTEOPATHY 

The  remarkable  success  which  osteopathic  phy- 
sicians have  had  with  germ  diseases  is  often  a 
cause  of  wonder  and  surprise  to  the  patients,  and 
to  the  families  of  patients  who  have  applied  to 
the  osteopath  for  treatment.  It  will  be  a  matter 
of  interest  to  the  general  public  to  explain  in 
as  simple  a  way  as  possible  the  reasons  for  oste- 
opathic success  in  diseases  known  to  be  caused 
by  germs  or,  at  least,  to  be  associated  with  germs. 
These  diseases  are  called  "infectious"  diseases,  or 
"germ  diseases",  and  we  will  consider  some  of 
them  here. 

To  explain  the  facts  to  the  lay  reader  it  is  neces- 
sary to  depart  a  little  from  the  subject  of  infec- 
tious diseases  itself,  and  to  state  that  osteopathic 
success  in  these  diseases  is  due  altogether  to  a 
great  fact  in  Nature — the  great  natural  fact — 
demonstrated  by  science — that  the  living  body  is 
truly  and  completely  in  its  entire  structure  and 
function  a  matter  of  chemical  composition  and 
chemical  reaction. 

To  say  that  the  body  is  nothing  but  a  great 
chemical  fact  may  sound  strange  to  those  who  are 
unfamiliar  with  physiology.  But  such  is  the  truth. 
Physiological  chemists  are  special  chemists  who 
study  and  experiment  with  the  tissues  of  the  body ; 

170 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

who  analyze  the  body;  who  discover  the  various 
substances  of  which  the  body  is  built  up.  And 
physiologists  are  men  who  try  to  discover  how 
these  various  substances  act  in  the  living  body. 
The  difference  between  a  living  body  and  a  dead 
body  is  believed  by  physiologists  and  by  chemists 
to  consist  in  the  different  conduct  of  these  sub- 
stances in  the  two  cases.  This  is  not  absolutely 
proved  as  yet,  but  scientists  believe  it  is  so.  The 
dead  body  no  longer  takes  into  itself  substances 
from  the  outside  which  it  builds  up  into  its  own 
substance  (food)  nor  does  it  throw  off  the  prod- 
ucts of  its  living  energy,  such  as  come  from  it 
in  the  form  of  carbonic  acid  from  the  lungs,  water 
from  the  sweat  glands,  and  numerous  chemical 
substances  found  in  the  excretion  from  the  kid- 
neys. 

Now  all  this  is  very  intimately  associated  with 
the  frightful  disturbance  the  body  passes  through 
when,  owing  to  some  defect  or  fault  in  the  body 
itself,  it  is  invaded  by  germs — ^by  disease-making 
bacteria.  And  we  will  ask  the  reader  to  follow 
us  a  little  way  into  this  chemistry  of  the  body 
before  considering  its  intimate  relation  with  oste- 
opathic treatment  and  success.  Osteopathy  is  first 
and  foremost  founded  on  scientific  fact.  Some  of 
these  facts  we  will  now  point  out. 

THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  THE  LIVING  BODY 

A  little — a  very  little — study  of  chemistry  will 
teach  us  that  all  things  in  existence — all  the  things 
we  can  see,  and  all  the  things  we  cannot  see,  from 
the  globe  of  the  earth  with  its  vast  envelopes  of 
water  and  air,  from  the  sun  and  the  stars,  down 

171 


DR.    ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

to  the  microscopic  particle  of  less  than  4-10,000 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  are  merely  chemical  com- 
pounds, or  chemical  elements  of  which  chemical 
compounds  consist.  The  great  meteor  that  falls 
out  of  the  sky  is  pure  iron.  Iron  is  a  chemical 
element.  Pure  iron  never  occurs  on  the  earth,  but 
has  to  be  separated  from  some  other  element  with 
which  it  is  found  united.  Hematite  ore,  for  ex- 
ample, is  iron  chemically  combined  with  oxygen. 
Now  oxygen  is  another  element,  but  oxygen  is  a 
gas.  When  the  two  elements  are  in  chemical  union 
they  form  the  beautiful  many-colored  hematite 
ore,  mined  in  enormous  quantities  in  the  Great 
Lakes  mining  region.  The  ore  is  taken  to  the 
reduction  plant,  the  oxygen  is  driven  off,  and  we 
thus  have  the  pure  iron  of  industry. 

Now  the  air  around  us  consists  of  one-fifth  oxy- 
gen and  four-fifths  nitrogen — another  gaseous  ele- 
ment. Iron  and  oxygen  combine  together  in  chem- 
ical union,  forming  iron  oxide  in  nature,  and  iron 
combined  in  other  natural  ways  is  found  in  the 
bodies  of  all  animals  and  plants.  The  liver  carries 
a  great  store,  or  stock  of  iron;  iron  enters  into 
the  chemical  composition  of  the  red  blood  corpus- 
cles— ^the  little  bodies  that  give  the  blood  its  red 
color;  and  iron  is  a  constituent  of  every  one  of 
those  microscopic  little  units  of  the  body  which 
we  call  cells.  Oxygen  also  enters  very  largely  into 
the  chemical  compounds  of  which  the  body  con- 
sists. Without  the  oxygen  we  draw  into  our 
blood  through  the  lungs  we  could  not  live  an  hour. 
Without  oxygen  the  body  could  not  use  at  all  the 
food  it  takes  into  itself.       Without  oxygen  we 

172 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

should  die  of  asphyxiation.  Even  when  the  lungs 
of  an  animal  are  collapsed  by  opening  the  air-tight 
cavity  in  which  they  naturally  expand  and  con- 
tract by  the  movements  of  the  muscles  of  respir- 
ation, the  animal  while  perfectly  unconscious,  will 
make  the  most  distressing  and  convulsive  efforts 
to  breathe,  so  that  an  observer  would  be  convinced 
it  were  consciously  trying  to  "get  its  breath" — so 
necessary  to  life  are  the  chemical  comi)ounds  in 
which  oxygen  enters.  All  the  elements  that  enter 
into  the  compounds  of  which  the  body  consists  are 
familiar  to  us  in  the  material  of  which  the  earth 
is  made.  Sodium  and  chlorine  which,  when  com- 
bined, make  sodium  chloride — common  table  salt 
— are  found  in  almost  all  the  fluids  of  the  body. 
Calcium  and  phosphorus  are  found  in  the  bones  as 
calcium  phosphate;  carbon  and  oxygen  unite  in 
the  body  as  carbonic  acid,  and  these  two  elements, 
together  with  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  phosphorus  and 
sulphur,  unite  together  to  form  the  wonderful 
chemical  "compound"  of  which  living  matter  es- 
sentially consists.  This  compound  is  called  proto- 
plasm (and  dead  protoplasm  is  called  protein)  and 
is  distinguished  from  the  other  compounds  of  the 
body  by  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  its  nitrogen 
is  united  with  the  other  elements  of  carbon,  oxy- 
gen, phosphorus  and  sulphur.  About  70  per  cent 
of  the  body's  weight  consists  of  water,  and  water 
is  a  compound  of  the  two  gases,  hydrogen  and 
oxygen.  A  biological  architect  who  knew  the  nec- 
essary chemistry  —  we  might  easily  imagine  — 
could  take  some  twelve  or  fewer  elements,  includ- 
ing those  above  mentioned,  and  build  with  them  a 

173 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

living  animal.  This,  of  course,  is  from  the  view- 
point of  the  cold-blooded  chemist. 

Now  these  wonderfully  complex  compounds  of 
which  the  body  consists  are  distributed  in  the 
body  in  the  form  of  what  are  called  "tissues".  The 
different  tissues  are  chemically  different  from  one 
another.  The  secreting  organs,  like  the  stomach, 
the  liver,  the  kidneys,  the  intestines,  the  pancreas, 
the  salivary  glands,  the  thyroid  gland,  and  others, 
each  produces  its  own  chemical  product.  The  gas- 
tric juice  is  the  chemical  product  of  that  chemical 
factory,  the  stomach.  The  liver  manufactures  we 
do  not  know  how  many  different  chemical  prod- 
ucts. The  liver  manufactures  urea  and  throws  it 
into  the  blood  to  be  taken  out  in  the  urine  by  the 
kidneys.  The  liver  destroys  uric  acid.  The  liver 
manufactures  a  mysterious  chemical  substancie 
which  converts  glucose-sugar,  the  form  in  which 
sugar  appears  in  the  body,  into  a  substance  very 
like  starch ;  and  stores  this  substance  in  the  liver 
tissue;  and  the  liver  makes  another  mysterious 
chemical  compound  which  again  reconverts  this 
animal  starch  into  glucose-sugar  and  throws  it 
back  again  into  the  blood.  Were  the  liver  to  lose 
its  control  over  sugar  (sugar  as  a  chemical  com- 
pound consisting  of  carbon,  hydrogen  and  oxy- 
gen) there  would  be  an  end  of  life. 

But  these  are  only  a  few  examples.  All  that 
goes  on  in  the  body  is  chemical,  and  the  most  com- 
plex, delicately  equilibrated  kind  of  chemism:  so 
that  you  can  easily  understand  why  nothing  that 
will  interfere  with  these  numerous  delicate  reac- 
tions should  be  allowed  to  enter  the  body. 

174 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

In  chemistry  we  have  what  are  called  active  and 
inert  substances.  An  active  substance  is  one 
which  causes  a  chemical  change  in  the  substance 
to  which  it  is  added.  An  inert  substance  is  one 
which  causes  no  such  change.  Were  you  to  chew 
up  and  swallow  a  fist  full  of  white  paper,  or  swal- 
low a  handful  of  pebbles  or  a  cupful  of  bran,  these 
substances  would  cause  no  chemical  change  in 
your  body,  but  would  pass  out  of  it  unaltered. 
They  are  inert  substances  in  the  body.  They 
are  neither  food  nor  poison.  Food  and  poison  are 
both  active  substances.  They  cause  chemical 
change  in  the  body,  and  are  chemically  changed 
themselves. 

Now  physiologists  assert  that  all  active  sub- 
stances which  are  not  foods  are  poisons.  And  the 
word  of  the  physiologist  may  be  accepted  as  true. 
It  is  a  knowledge  of  this  great  fact  of  physiology 
that  is  causing  the  widespread  and  popular  reac- 
tion against  the  use  of  the  old-style  drastic  and 
poisonous  drugs  which  the  intelligent  physician 
now  hesitates  to  prescribe — preferring  rather  to 
let  "Nature  take  its  course" — and  which  the  intel- 
ligent patient  hesitates  to  swallow.  These  facts 
account  for  the  increasing  success  of  the  osteo- 
pathic physician  and  for  the  growing  use  of  oste- 
opathy among  the  most  intelligent  and  enlightened 
classes  of  patients.  Osteopathic  physicians  have 
long  since  learned  to  take  their  success  calmly  and 
as  a  matter  of  course,  knowing  full  well  that  their 
success  is  due  altogether  to  the  fact  that  osteopa- 
thy is  founded  on  the  well-known  and  scientifically 
proved  facts  of  the  body's  life. 

175 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

The  osteopathic  physican  not  only  agrees  with 
the  physiologist  in  the  physiologists's  chemical 
view  of  the  body  and  administers  no  active  drugs, 
but  he  goes  farther.  He  uses  the  chemistry  that 
is  natural  to  the  body  to  restore  to  the  body 
the  very  chemical  equilibrium  which  the  body, 
through  whatever  fault  or  defect,  has  lost.  Under 
his  fingers  he  has  the  wonderful  keyboard  of  the 
nervous  system,  with  its  nerve  fibers  communi- 
cating directly  or  indirectly  with  every  minute 
part  and  cell  of  the  body,  and  under  the  normal- 
izing impulse  thus  given,  the  organs  and  parts 
of  the  body  that  are  out  of  chemical  equilibrium 
leap  in  response.  No  active  drug  is  needed  to 
hasten  or  retard  the  marvelous  work  going  on  in 
these  chemical  factories.  The  nerve  is  the  "mas- 
ter tissue"  and  the  other  tissues  are  its  slaves. 
The  osteopath  controls  the  nerves.  That  is  the 
secret. 

NATURAL  CONTROL  OF  THE  BODY'S  CHEMISTRY 

When  you  see  a  nerve  cell  under  the  microscope, 
it  looks  like  some  vast  gray-colored  water  animal 
with  numerous  exquisitely  sensitive  tentacles 
reaching  out  in  many  directions,  one  of  which  is 
prolonged  enormously.  This  long  tentacle  is  the 
nerve  fibre,  and  many  thousands,  or  tens  of  thous- 
ands, or  millions  of  these  fibres  make  up  the 
nerve,  or  nerve  trunk.  All  the  muscles,  all  the 
glands,  all  the  other  organs  and  parts  of  the 
body  are  the  mere  slaves  of  these  microscopic, 
monster-like  organisms,  the  nerve  cells.  The  oste- 
opath sends  his  message  to  the  disordered  organ 
or  part  through  these  masters  of  the  body,  and  the 

176 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

message  brings  blood  to  the  part  or  bids  the  blood 
flow  from  the  part  precisely  as  the  case  requires, 
either  to  stimulate  or  normalize  the  organ  to  its 
own  peculiar  activity. 

Every  organ,  every  part  of  the  body,  has  its 
own  corresponding  place  on  the  marvelous  key- 
board of  the  flexuous  spinal  column,  and  instan- 
taneously the  osteopath  reaches  the  disordered 
part  by  manipulating  the  nerve  fibres  that  control 
its  chemism.  It  is  like  the  operation  of  a  tele- 
phone exchange  in  perfect  order.  That  is  the  rea- 
son why  osteopaths  have  had  such  splendid  suc- 
cess in  the  treatment  of  the  fifty  or  more  alleged 
diseases  of  the  stomach  and  heart. 

Many  patients  have  suffered  death  a  thousand 
times  over  from  "heart  diseases"  diagnosed  as 
"stomach  troubles".  It  was  really  the  heart — ^not 
the  stomach.  And  the  osteopath  has  cured  such 
diseases  by  his  intelligent,  scientific  understanding 
of  the  nerve  centers  by  which  the  heart  is  con- 
trolled. The  heart  and  the  stomach  are  tied  up 
together  by  the  same  nerve — ^the  great  vagus  or 
pneumogastric  nerve.  Hold  a  glass  of  water  to 
your  mouth  with  your  left  hand,  and  put  your 
finger  to  the  pulse  of  your  left  hand  then  swallow 
— not  too  fast — the  water  in  the  glass,  and  note 
how  your  pulse  changes  the  rhythm  of  its  beats. 
Do  that,  and  you  will  have  the  key  to  the  fact 
why  the  osteopath — understanding  the  connection 
between  the  chemistry  of  the  body  and  its  nerves 
— administers  the  only  treatment  that  science  can 
endorse,  and  cures  his  patient  in  Nature's  own 
way. 

177 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

Osteopaths  have  been  highly  pleased  by  the  suc- 
cess they  have  had  in  treating  diseases  due  to 
bacteria  or  germs.  Each  day  we  learn  a  little 
more  about  germ  diseases  and  germs.  Bacteria 
harmful  to  men  get  into  the  body  through  a  lower- 
ing of  its  resistance,  and  by  their  multiplication 
in  the  body  produce  certain  chemical  substances 
poisonous  to  the  tissues.  These  poisons,  or  "tox- 
ins", as  we  call  them,  are  chemical  compounds 
which  destroy  the  tissues,  or  which  disturb  the 
great  chemical  factories  of  the  body  in  the  normal 
manufacture  of  their  products.  When  these  dis- 
ease-making germs  find  an  entrance  into  a  body 
susceptible  to  them  they  grow  with  unthinkable 
rapidity  and  the  body  puts  forth  both  its  white- 
blood  cells  and  its  entire  chemical  force  fighting 
them.  We  assert  with  positive  truth  that  there 
is  no  medical  treatment  given  to  fight  the  germs 
which  will  not  hurt  a  patient  suffering  from  one 
of  these  diseases. 

The  osteopath,  like  the  doctors  of  the  old  school, 
studies  the  science  of  bacteriology,  and  in  these 
studies  he,  as  well  as  the  modernly-educated  doc- 
tor of  the  old  school,  has  been  taught  that  there  is 
no  "medicine"  which  can  fight  the  germs.  The 
only  substance  which  can  be  taken  by  the  sufferer 
from  a  germ  disease  that  will  help  him  in  Nature's 
battle  against  the  invaders  is  nourishing  food. 
Possibly  some  harmless  substance  (in  reality  a 
food,  such  as  castor  oil),  or  soap-enemas  admin- 
istered to  quicken,  when  expedient,  the  emptying 
of  the  intestines,  may  be  a  helpful  thing  as  medi- 
cal treatment;  but  you  should  realize  that  oste- 

178 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

opathy  by  its  own  independent  treatment  secures 
the  unloading  of  the  bowels  without  the  use  of  any 
purgative  whatsoever.  (Osteopaths,  of  course, 
use  enemas  freely.) 

THE  BODY  MAKES  ITS  OWN  MEDICINES 

Germ  diseases  such  as  typhoid  fever,  certain 
other  forms  of  intestinal  disorders  such  as  "run- 
ning from  the  bowels",  bloody  dysentery,  various 
disorders  of  the  stomach,  "common  colds",  bron- 
chitis, spinal  fever,  scarlet  fever,  tonsillitis,  grip 
or  influenza,  diphtheria  and  other  infections  which 
will  be  mentioned  hereafter,  can  be  and  are  re- 
lieved and  often  completely  stopped  by  osteopathic 
treatment,  because  of  the  fact  that  the  only  cure 
possible  in  these  cases  is  the  chemical  resistance  of 
the  body  to  the  germs  and  their  poisons.  The 
body  is  already  fighting  with  all  its  power  to  over- 
come the  destructive  effects  of  the  germs.  With 
every  beat  of  the  heart  the  blood  is  sent  through 
all  the  tissues  bearing  countless  billions  of  its  de- 
vouring white-blood  cells  (phagocytes)  and  its 
newly  made  chemical  soldiers  (antitoxins)  to  neu- 
tralize the  poisons  of  the  germs  and  to  destroy  the 
germs  themselves.  This  is  Nature's  own  work, 
and  if  the  body  is  not  naturally  strong  enough  to 
win  the  fight — if  it  is  destined  to  lose  the  battle — 
it  quits  the  struggle  only  in  the  last  ditch. 

Now  the  question  is  this:  Can  the  body  be 
helped  in  this  struggle  with  the  bacteria  ?  It  mat- 
ters little  whether  the  germ  disease  be  an  actual 
pneumonia  or  other  rapidly  destructive  invasion 
of  germs,  or  whether  it  be  a  "simple  cold"  (which 
is  often  easily  conquered  by  the  blood,  but  which 

179 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

too  often,  when  neglected,  finishes  in  pneumonia 
or  tuberculosis) .  The  only  difference  between  the 
way  the  body  fights  pneumonia,  diphtheria,  influ- 
enza, chronic  catarrh,  or  any  other  germ  disease — 
even  scarlet  fever  or  smallpox,  or  the  plague  or 
yellow  fever — and  the  way  it  fights  a  "simple 
cold"  is  this:  that  in  the  "simple  cold"  the  body 
quickly  produces,  first,  a  great  army  of  white- 
blood  cells,  and,  second,  a  great  chemical  army  of 
Nature's  own  anti-toxins  which  by  their  numbers 
overwhelm  both  the  invading  germs  and  the  toxins 
made  by  them.  In  the  other  diseases,  and  in 
cases  where  the  "simple  cold"  paves  the  way  for 
the  development  of  pneumonia  or  tubercular  bron- 
chitis, the  "reaction"  of  the  body  to  the  germ- 
poisons  is  slower  and  of  less  extent.  The  body 
cannot  produce  its  army  of  phagocytes  and  nat- 
ural anti-toxins  or  germ  fighters  quickly  enough, 
or  in  sufficient  number,  to  destroy  the  germs  and 
their  poisons.  "Medicine"  in  these  cases  is  no 
longer  prescribed.  But  right  here  is  where  the 
osteopathic  physician  steps  in  and  helps  Nature 
when  Nature  can  be  helped  in  no  other  way.  How 
does  he  do  it? 

OSTEOPATHIC  ADJUSTMENT  SAVES  THE  DAY 

The  osteopathic  physician  claims  and  proves 
that  scientific  and  intelligent  adjustment,  stimu- 
lation or  normalization  (as  the  case  requires)  of 
spinal  tissues  (not  massage  or  the  ignorant  man- 
ipulations of  untrained  and  unscientific  hands,  but 
genuine  osteopathic  adjustment)  will  increase  the 
activity  of  the  organs  the  cells  of  which  manufac- 
ture the  chemical  soldiers  that  overcome  the  pois- 

180 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ons  of  the  invading  germs.  In  a  word  the  body 
manufactures  natural  anti-toxins.  This  has  been 
proved  so  often  in  pneumonia,  in  typhoid,  in  grip, 
in  tonsillitis,  in  diphtheria,  in  cerebro-spinal  men- 
ingitis, and  in  other  virulent  germ  diseases  that 
it  is  now  a  commonplace  fact  of  osteopathic  prac- 
tice which,  as  I  have  said  before,  is  taken  by  the 
osteopath  and  his  patients  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  osteopath  knows  this  fact  well,  and  he  knows, 
furthermore,  that  if  the  body  can  make  a  reason- 
ably strong  effort  in  raising  its  army,  he,  with 
his  ready  and  prompt  assistance,  can  reinforce 
it  by  using  the  great  master  tissue,  the  nerves,  on 
the  body  cells  and  the  blood  to  spur  on — ^to  help 
forward — the  process  of  resistance.  And  this 
fact  is  attested  today  by  thousands  of  families  in 
which  the  osteopath  has  been  called  early  and  late 
in  these  diseases. 

HOW  OSTEOPATHS  GIVE  POWER  TO  THE  HEART 

The  osteopath,  too,  is  a  powerful  factor  in  sus- 
taining the  heart  by  natural  stimulation  when,  in 
the  destructive  germ  disease,  it  has  been  weakened 
and  battered  by  the  toxins  of  the  germs.  This 
kind  of  heart  support  is  a  thousand  times  more 
rational  than  the  use  of  powerful  drugs  which  the 
intelligent  medical  man  of  today  hates — yea,  trem- 
bles to  use,  but  which,  unfortunately,  he  often 
feels  compelled  to  use,  knowing  no  other  way, 
rather  than  see  the  patient  die  under  his  hands. 
And  the  most  alarming  consideration  is  the  ter- 
rific after-effects  of  these  drugs  on  the  heart — - 
weeks,  months  or  years  later — which  account  for 
most  of  the  sudden  deaths  from  so-called  modern 

181 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

"heart  failure"  among  patients  that  have  been  so 
treated.  From  the  natural  (and  powerful)  oste- 
opathic stimulation  of  the  heart  there  is  no  quick 
and  dangerous  reaction — there  is  no  reaction  at 
all,  nor  later  disaster,  as  is  the  case  with  the  phar- 
macological stimulants  and  regulators,  for,  by  giv- 
ing the  organ  a  more  adequate  blood  supply,  it  is 
furnished  with  greater  stores  of  the  fuel  which  it 
uses  up  in  doing  its  normal  work,  and  hence  the 
heart  is  permanently  strengthened,  not  weakened, 
by  osteopathic  treatment. 

Then,  too,  the  osteopath  controls  the  heart  with 
much  of  the  assurance  with  which  one  can  work 
the  handle  of  a  pump — fast  or  slow,  weak  or 
strong,  as  the  case  demands. 

So  that  in  germ  diseases  the  intelligent  layman, 
with  these  facts  in  mind,  will  easily  comprehend 
the  reason  why  osteopathic  treatment  is  the  ra- 
tional treatment  indicated  by  Nature  itself. 

OSTEOPATHY  FIGHTS  ON  THE  SIDE  OP  NATURE 

Again  in  chronic  bronchitis  when  not  caused  by 
germs,  but  by  heart  lesions,  or  by  displacement  of 
joints  in  the  spine  or  ribs  (a  common  occurrence), 
the  disease  can  be  vastly  relieved  by  imparting 
muscle  "tone"  to  the  heart  and  to  the  rest  of  the 
body,  or  in  the  second  category  of  cases  it  can  be 
removed  altogether  by  correcting  the  bony  dis- 
placement according  to  osteopathic  technique. 

The  osteopath  claims  and  proves  that  normaliz- 
ation and  stimulation  of  the  spinal  tissues  can  and 
does  assist  the  patient's  body  in  overcoming  the 
effects  of  the  bacterial  invasion.  He  stimulates 
the  heart,  as  just  explained,  by  Nature's  own  stim- 

182 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ulant — the  nerve.  While  he  observes  all  the  re- 
quired precautions  in  the  way  of  adequate  and 
suitable  nourishment,  careful  nursing,  sanitary- 
measures,  and  the  other  aspects  of  regimen  which 
common  sense  and  experience  indicate  as  useful, 
he  does  bring  in  the  help  which  the  bacteriologist 
with  sorrow  deplores  as  non-existent.  The  bac- 
teriologist is  speaking  honestly,  and  with  the  high- 
est and  best  motives,  when  he  says  that  "in  the 
battle  between  the  germ  and  the  body,  all  we  can 
do  is  to  watch  with  intense  interest  the  ultimate 
outcome".  Yet  the  bacteriologist  in  good  time  will 
learn  that  osteopathy  has  found  a  way  of  taking 
an  active  part  in  the  battle,  and  reinforcing  the 
body  with  its  own  chemical  troops  which,  if  they 
do  not  always  decide  the  day,  at  least  decide  it 
many,  many  times. 

SCIENTIFIC  MEN  NEVER  TAKE  DRUGS 
THEMSELVES 

The  harmful  effect  of  drugs  on  the  living  body 
has  been  long  known  and  realized  by  the  really 
scientific  man,  such  as  the  bacteriologist,  the 
physiologist,  the  chemist  and  the  pharmacologist. 
Men  like  these  who,  knowing  that  drugs  were 
worse  than  useless,  began  a  few  years  ago  to  in- 
vestigate germ  diseases  with  the  hope  of  finding, 
in  the  germs  themselves,  some  hidden  cure  for 
the  diseases  which  the  germs  produced.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  what  is  now  known  as  "serum 
therapy".  It  consists  in  the  injection  into  the 
human  body  of  the  liquid  part  of  the  blood — that 
is,  the  part  of  the  blood  that  remains  after  the  clot 
has  been  removed — of  an  animal  that  has  been 

183 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

treated  with  the  germs  which  produce  the  special 
disease  that  it  is  desired  to  cure. 

Now  in  justice  to  the  men  who  have  been  experi- 
menting in  the  laboratories  with  serum  therapy, 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  they  have  made  no  great 
claims  whatever  for  this  method  of  treatment! 
Rash  and  over-zealous  doctors  have  hailed  the 
mere  hopes  of  the  experimenters  as  actual  discov- 
eries, and  sensational  newspapers  have  grossly  ex- 
aggerated the  optimistic  claims  of  the  rash  doc- 
tors; but  conservative  doctors  are  always  very 
cautious  in  the  use  of  new  and  dangerous  agents 
which  may  work  more  harm  than  good. 

Commercial  drug  houses  have  put  on  the  mar- 
ket all  sorts  of  useless  and  even  harmful  prepara- 
tions, and  have  tried  hard  to  induce  doctors  to  use 
them  by  shamelessly  exaggerated  claims  of  their 
virtues,  but  few  intelligent  physicians  are  caught 
in  the  trap.  The  most  conservative  men  in  the 
world,  however,  with  regard  to  the  power  of 
serum  therapy  are  the  original  discoverers  them- 
selves. They  know  the  limitations  and  the  ex- 
treme dangers  of  the  method,  and  have  long  since 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  science  must  look  in 
other  directions  for  a  rational  and  safe  method  of 
fighting  germs  in  the  bodies  of  men. 

THE  GREAT  EHRLICH  ABANDONED  SERUM  "CURES" 

The  greatest  genius  of  experimental  therapy  in 
the  world — so  acclaimed  at  the  recent  Interna- 
tional Medical  Congress  at  London — I  mean  Pro- 
fessor Ehrlich,  of  Frankfort-am-Main — ^before 
his  death  abandoned  serum  v/ork,  regarding  the 
field  as  already  worked  out,  and  in  his  last  work 

181 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  study  of  the 
effects  of  certain  chemical  compounds  on  the 
germ  of  syphilis.  Such  things  are  highly  sig- 
nificant. 

But,  out  of  all  this  study  and  investigation  of 
the  chemistry  of  serums  have  come  many  great 
truths,  the  greatest  of  which  is  this:  the  only 
germ  destroyer  which  can  be  depended  upon,  and 
the  only  germ  destroyer  that  will  not  injure  the 
body  of  the  patient,  is  the  blood  and  tissues  of  the 
patient  himself! 

This  fact — now  announced  from  the  scientific 
laboratories  of  the  world  as  the  highest  generaliz- 
ation of  modern  pathology — was  taught  as  a  fund- 
amental truth  of  osteopathy  by  Still  twenty-five 
years  before  the  science  of  experimental  pathology 
was  born!  This  announcement  of  Still's — which 
is  today  regarded  as  an  almost  self-evident  axiom 
of  experimental  pathology — could  not  have  been 
understood  by  the  best  pathologists  of  his  day, 
and  it  could  not  be  understood  simply  because  the 
knowledge  and  experimental  proof  of  the  lumin- 
ous facts  of  this  young  science  were  still  locked 
up  in  the  treasury  of  the  future. 

OSTEOPATHS  AS  RESEARCHERS  OF  THE  LIVING 
BODY 

So  that  the  osteopathic  practitioner  is  justified 
in  feeling  that  for  all  these  years,  while  the  labora- 
tory researchers  toiled  to  vindicate  and  verify  the 
supreme  intuition  of  the  founder  of  osteopathy, 
he  himself  has  been  traveling  the  safe  and  solid 
highway  which  the  experimental  pathologists 
were  yet  in  the  process  of  building  or  even  of 
shaping  the  stones  that  were  laid  down.    Accept- 

185 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

ing  Still's  theory  as  true,  the  osteopathic  physi- 
cian, by  the  quick  and  positive  results  flowing 
from  the  subtle  touches  of  his  finger  tips  on  the 
living  body,  has  been  and  is  a  living  and  daily 
verifier  and  demonstrator  of  a  therapeutic  theory 
which  is  still  twenty  years  in  advance  of  ordinary 
medical  thinking. 

This,  then,  is  the  great  and  beautiful  discovery 
that  has  been  made  and  established  as  an  abso- 
lute fact  by  the  wonderful  experiments  of  the  re- 
search men  in  Europe.  Their  work  has  proved, 
once  and  forever,  that  the  only  cure  for  disease 
is  the  cure  which  Nature  has  already  installed  in 
the  body.  And  many  of  the  foremost  leaders  in 
this  work  besides  Professor  Ehrlich  have  aban- 
doned serum  therapy  as  a  futile  hope  for  man, 
while  a  great  many  others  never  had  any  faith  in 
it  at  all.  They  are  still  studying  the  blood  and  its 
conduct  in  abnormal  conditions.  This  new  science 
is  called  "Experimental  Pathology"  and  those  who 
are  working  in  it  are  in  reality  working  along 
osteopathic  lines. 

THE  LITTLE  LEFT  TO  SERUM  THERAPY 

Serum  therapy — that  is  serums  offered  as 
"cures" — is  regarded  by  osteopathic  physicians 
with  open  minds.  They  await  more  complete  evi- 
dence. As  among  other  schools  of  practice, 
there  is  wide  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  how 
much  or  how  little  ground  there  is  for  the  tremen- 
dous claims  made  for  it  by  those  who  advocate  its 
use.  Certain  it  is  that  only  a  small  fraction  of 
truth,  as  weighed  by  the  evidence,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  wild  and  sensational  claims  made  by  the 

186 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

daily  press  for  the  several  serums  still  being  ex- 
perimented with ;  and  unfortunately  the  desire  to 
make  good  newspaper  "copy"  seems  entirely  to 
outweigh  the  desire  of  the  press  to  get  at  the  real 
scientific  facts.  Such  doctors  as  are  uneducated 
greatly  encourage  these  fanciful  claims  but,  as  I 
have  stated,  the  experimenters  themselves  as  a 
class  are  very  skeptical  regarding  serum  "cures" 
while  well-educated  physicians  almost  all  share 
this  conservatism  of  view  very  fully. 

But  the  osteopath  positively  asserts — even 
granting  for  the  sake  of  argument  that  the  use 
of  the  serum  therapy  may  arrest  the  destruction 
produced  by  bacteria  in  two  or  three  certain  dis- 
eases only — ^that  osteopathic  treatment  without 
serums  scores  a  higher  percentage  of  real  cures, 
not  the  sort  of  "recoveries"  which  show  a  later 
train  of  serious  or  fatal  retributions  due  to  mis- 
taken ideas  of  therapy.  Following  the  use  of 
serums  in  countless  patients  that  have  been  left 
in  a  deplorable  condition  as  a  result  of  adminis- 
tering these  much-praised  but  oft-failing  "cures", 
osteopathy  works  many  actual  and  complete  cures. 
For  example :  it  has  cured  the  paralysis  of  many 
children  resulting  from  and  following  the  anti- 
toxin treatment  of  diphtheria. 

The  entire  claims  of  results  of  all  the  work  that 
has  been  done  in  serum  are  now  limited  strictly 
to  (1)  diphtheria  serum:  (2)  the  supposed  re- 
duction of  mortality  in  spinal  fever  by  the  Flex- 
ner  serum:  (3)  the  beneficial  results  in  a  small 
number  of  cases  of  boils  and  acne  (pimples)  by 
Wright's  vaccines:  (4)  the  new  "immunity  treat- 

187 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

ment"  for  typhoid  now  under  experiment  by  the 
U.  S.  Army;  (5)  the  ancient  and  much  disputed 
questionable  use  of  vaccination  in  smallpox:  (6) 
a  preventive  (not  curative)  serum  for  tetanus: 
and  (7)  the  hydrophobia  treatment.  This  sum- 
mary includes  the  sum  total  of  the  fruit  of  all  the 
incalculable  mass  of  research  work  done  in  the 
hope  of  curing  disease  by  these  methods.  The 
possibilities  of  serum  and  vaccine  therapy  have 
been  considered  for  some  time  past  by  the  fore- 
most workers  and  critics  of  the  European  labora- 
tories as  having  been  completely  exhausted.  Ser- 
um therapy  will  probably  rest  on  the  laurels  it 
has  already  won,  such  as  they  are. 

The  great  science  of  pathological  physiology,  or 
experimental  pathology,  has  now  largely  dropped 
"serum  cures"  as  being  perfectly  impossible  in 
virtually  all  but  the  few  diseases  named  and  is 
now  turning  its  attention  in  other  directions. 
Therefore,  the  popular  notion,  derived  from  Sun- 
day newspapers,  that  serum  therapy  has  a  "great 
future"  before  it,  has  really  never  been  believed 
by  the  best  experts  who  have  delved  in  this  field. 
They  look  upon  serum  therapy  as  a  worked  out 
mine. 

INFANTILE  PARALYSIS 

Spinal  meningitis,  or  spinal  fever,  or  infantile 
paralysis — that  dread  disease  of  the  young — is  a 
disease  which  osteopathy  can  reach  through  the 
blood  when  it  can  be  reached  at  all.  If  Nature  has 
left  in  the  body  the  slightest  tendency  to  fight  this 
disease — as  is  usually  the  case — osteopathy  can 
help  the  fight  along  by  pouring  the  blood  in  more 

188 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

generous  quantities  to  the  tissue  where  the  battle 
is  being  fought.  Osteopaths  have  had  success  in 
this  dread  disease  where  the  medical  practitioner 
has  thrown  up  his  hands.  Given  a  fighting  chance, 
the  body  of  the  patient  tends  to  conquer  the  germs 
itself.  And  with  this  fighting  chance  on  his  side, 
the  osteopath  has  a  tremendous  advantage  over 
the  ordinary  practitioner  because  the  latter  is  a 
mere  spectator  of  the  battle  while  the  osteopath 
directly  and  indirectly  assists  Nature  in  the  re- 
sisting process  already  begun. 

RHEUMATISM 

Another  germ  disease  which  osteopathy  can  in- 
fluence is  the  more  common  one  of  rheumatism. 
Rheumatism  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  a  germ  as 
yet  little  known,  nor  has  this  germ  been  positively 
identified.  But  it  is  a  fact  that  in  rheumatic  pa- 
tients the  body  is  always  putting  up  a  splendid 
chemical  fight,  which  should  not  be  interfered 
with  by  the  administration  of  useless  and  harmful 
drugs. 

Of  course,  if  a  rheumatic  patient  will  further 
insist  on  using  alcohol  and  tobacco — two  of  the 
most  active  drug-poisons  known  to  men — osteopa- 
thy cannot  miraculously  overcome  the  effect  of 
these  poisons  in  rheumatism.  If  the  rheumatic 
patient  who  puts  himself  under  the  care  of  an 
osteopath  wisely  refrains  from  these  two  pro- 
nounced aggravators  of  the  disease,  osteopathy 
can  help  him.  This  treatment  for  rheumatism  is 
the  only  treatment  that  has  accomplished  practi- 
cal results.  Old  rheumatic  patients  are  always 
agreeably  surprised  by  the  results  of  osteopathic 

189 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

treatment,  nor  should  the  newly  attacked  neglect 
this  sole  chance  that  is  offered  them  of  assisting 
their  blood  and  their  tissues  in  the  eternal  battle 
against  the  germs. 

In  other  diseases  due  to  germs,  osteopathy  has 
more  than  demonstrated  its  usefulness.  Germs 
hurtful  to  man  get  into  the  intestines,  or  the  blood 
of  the  man  fails  in  its  chemical  constituents  in 
such  a  way  that  harmful  germs  already  in  the  in- 
testines are  permitted  to  multiply.  The  large  in- 
testine is  infested  with  bacteria  which  ordinarily 
are  not  harmful.  More  than  fifty  different  kinds 
of  germs  have  their  abiding  place  in  the  gut. 
When  human  stools — ^that  is,  the  daily  output  of 
the  intestines — are  dried  and  examined,  it  is  found 
that  one-third  of  their  weight  consist  of  bacteria. 
This  is  a  tremendous  proportion. 

Now  under  certain  conditions  some  of  these 
germs — either  normal  or  not  to  the  intestine — 
multiply  and  cause  many  sorts  of  trouble.  Inflam- 
mation of  the  large  intestine  (colitis),  putrefac- 
tion of  lean  meat,  temporary  or  chronic  diarrhoea, 
and  appendicitis  (or  some  of  the  numerous  forms 
of  mischief  called  appendicitis,  in  which  the  ap- 
pendix is  involved),  typhlitis  or  inflammation  of 
the  blind  end  of  the  large  intestine  from  which 
the  appendix  comes  off  as  a  blind  sac,  and  other 
bacterial  intestinal  disturbances,  are  germ  dis- 
eases which  osteopathy  can  help,  or  cure,  provid- 
ing that  reasonable  measures  be  taken  in  the  diet- 
ary habits  of  the  patient  so  that  the  patient  will 
not  be  continually  counteracting  the  treatment. 
In  intestinal  putrefaction,  so-called  "auto-intoxi- 

190 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

cation",  the  patient  should  not  eat  much  meat,  as 
that  error  overcomes  the  effects  of  the  increased 
circulation  which  osteopathic  treatment  sends  to 
the  intestine:  it  is  deliberately  a  case  of  feeding 
the  bacteria  with  the  food  that  produces  the  poi- 
son. In  this  case  the  undigested  meat  acts  like  a 
drug  and  is  a  poison.  But  when  this  occurs  the 
patient  will  do  well  to  follow  the  counsel  and  ad- 
vice of  the  osteopathic  physician  who  knows  quite 
well  what  his  patient  needs  in  the  way  of  food, 
and,  when  necessary,  restricts  the  diet  to  vegeta- 
bles. 

In  other  cases  of  intestinal  bacterial  disease  the 
contrary  is  necessary.  The  patient  needs  solid 
meat  for  his  diet  and  should  have  it :  for  lean  meat 
(except  in  a  few  cases)  supplies  to  the  blood  and 
the  tissues  the  chemical  substances  which  help  the 
body  to  fight  the  invading  germs.  Many  an  osteo- 
path has  made  well  men  out  of  patients  who,  with 
slight  nervous  disorders  of  the  stomach,  have 
failed  to  find  relief,  either  in  the  regulation  of 
diet  or  in  the  stomach  tonics  of  the  old  therapeu- 
tics. It  is  said  that  fifty  per  cent  of  all  the 
patients  who  seek  treatment  are  suffering  from 
disorders  that  originally  rise  in  the  great  digestive 
tract.  This  is  probably  true,  and  there  would  be 
fewer  sick  men  in  the  world  if  the  sufferer,  when 
he  first  feels  the  discomforts  of  disorder  in  the 
stomach  and  intestines,  would  have  them  cor- 
rected by  forestalling  the  bacteria  through  prompt 
osteopathic  measures. 

In  men — especially  older  men — the  bladder  and 
the  prostate  gland  are  the  seat  of  much  discomfort 

191 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

which  may  or  may  not  be  caused  by  germs.  The 
old  way  of  treating  these  male  disorders  is  to  hand 
the  poor  man  a  prescription  which,  by  disturbing 
the  chemistry  of  his  stomach,  makes  his  original 
discomfort  worse.  Osteopathic  treatment  is  re- 
quired here  if  anywhere.  I  have  in  mind  a  special 
case  within  my  own  knowledge  in  which  the  man 
under  the  drug  treatment  was  contemplating  a 
business  failure  (he  is  a  large  manufacturer)  by 
reason  of  his  inability  to  look  after  his  interests. 
Three  months'  treatment  by  an  osteopath  restored 
him  to  his  work  and  although  that  was  four  years 
ago  he  has  never  been  near  a  doctor  since — not 
even  an  osteopathic  doctor. 

MALARIAL  FEVER 

Another  type  of  germ  diseases  that  are  specially 
amenable  to  osteopathic  treatment  are  the  fevers 
that  are  called  "autumnal"  (malarial  fever) .  Ma- 
larial fever  is  due  to  the  multiplication  in  the 
blood  of  an  animal  parasite  which  destroys  the 
red  blood  corpuscles.  The  body  strives  to  over- 
come the  parasites — ^to  kill  them — ^by  the  develop- 
ment of  anti-poisons,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
replaces  the  destroyed  corpuscles  by  over-activity 
in  the  red  bone  marrow  where  the  red  corpuscles 
are  made.  Osteopathic  treatment  here  is  of  spe- 
cial value  not  only  in  helping  the  body  in  its  nat- 
ural fight,  but  in  helping  it  to  throw  off  future 
attacks  by  quickly  destroying  the  new  host  of  in- 
vaders. 


192 


CHAPTER  X 

OSTEOPATHY  POTENT  WHERE 

SERUMS  AND  VACCINES 

FAIL 

Whether  you  are  healthy  or  sick,  whether  young 
or  old,  whether  rich  or  poor,  whatever  be  your 
profession,  station,  or  reputation,  you  are  inter- 
ested in  the  subject  of  infectious  diseases,  because 
all  individuals,  from  the  ruler  of  a  nation  and  the 
multi-millionaire  to  the  humblest  and  poorest  per- 
son in  the  world,  is  liable  at  any  moment  to  fall 
a  victim  to  one  of  the  diseases  that,  in  the  form 
of  microscopic  germs,  is  making  ill  or  is  killing 
some  brother  man. 

The  Apostle  Paul  truly  says  that  no  man  liveth 
to  himself,  no  man  dieth  to  himself  alone,  but  all 
men  live  and  die  together,  and  the  millionaire's 
baby,  as  well  as  the  millionaire  himself,  may  be 
killed  by  the  disease  germ  coming  from  the  mouth 
of  the  most  lowly  and  oppressed  laborer  or  labor- 
er's child  in  his  own  tenement  or  factory.  To  en- 
large on  these  facts  is  the  purpose  of  the  present 
chapter. 

Year  after  year  the  good  results  which  follow 
osteopathic  treatment  in  infectious  diseases  have 
attracted  increasing  attention  from  the  osteo- 
pathic profession,  and  have  been  so  highly  favor- 
able that  it  would  certainly  seem  that  this  treat- 
ment, especially  when  it  is  given  early  in  the 

193 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

course  of  the  infection,  is  in  reality  a  specific  for 
the  diseases  in  question.  In  a  recent  number  of 
this  magazine  we  spoke  in  detail  of  the  remark- 
able results  that  follow  osteopathic  treatment  in 
influenza,  popularly  called  la  grippe,  or  the  grip. 
We  have  now  to  dwell  further  on  certain  peculiar 
phases  of  osteopathy  when  used  for  treatment 
of  other  or  generally  infectious  diseases,  and  to 
lay  before  the  reader  certain  interesting  facts  in 
addition  to  those  written  about  in  that  recent 
number.  These  facts  and  their  interpretation  are 
valuable  as  a  general  contribution  to  the  campaign 
of  education  in  health  and  disease  that  is  now  be- 
ing carried  on  universally  by  the  popular  maga- 
zines, the  newspapers,  and  thru  them  by  the  va- 
rious state  and  city  health  departments  of  the 
country,  by  the  social  settlements  and  by  organ- 
ized work  in  the  public  schools. 

It  should  be  explained  that  it  is  not  scientific- 
ally correct  to  say  that  osteopathy  is  a  specific  for 
any  particular  infection,  because  that  would  mean 
that  osteopathy  is  not  a  remedy  for  any  other 
disease  but  the  one  in  question.  What  is  meant 
is  that  osteopathy  acts  in  many  infections  as  an 
ideal  specific  would  act  were  such  a  specific  rem- 
edy in  existence.  How  far  such  remedies  do  exist 
we  shall  undertake  to  show  in  the  present  paper, 
while  showing,  at  the  same  time,  a  peculiar  and 
interesting  parallel  between  osteopathy  and  cer- 
tain facts  in  the  results  of  scientific  investigation 
in  infectious  diseases  and  natural  and  acquired 
immunity  to  them. 

194 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

An  infectious  disease  is  any  disease  acquired 
thru  the  entrance  into  the  body  tissues  of  certain 
destructive  agents,  all  of  which  are  living  organ- 
isms, either  of  the  plant  kind  or  of  the  animal 
kind,  all  of  which  multiply  with  great  rapidity, 
once  they  find  lodgement  in  the  body,  and  all  of 
which  are  so  very  minute  that  they  can  not  be 
seen  excepting  in  high  powers  of  the  microscope. 
Of  these  disease-producing  organisms  there  are  in 
the  neighborhood  of  thirty.  Some  of  these 
"germs"  or  "micro-organisms"  as  they  are  called, 
in  their  growth  and  multiplication  secrete  sub- 
stances that  are  more  or  less  toxic,  or  poisonous, 
to  the  body  and  destroy  the  tissues  of  the  body — 
on  a  large  scale,  if  the  organism  be  virulent,  on  a 
smaller  scale  if  it  be  less  virulent,  or  milder.  The 
secretion  of  some  of  these  organisms,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  so  mild  (innocuous)  in  the  body  as  to  be 
scarcely  worthy  of  the  name  toxin,  or  poison,  but 
these  germs  are  none  the  less  deadly.  In  fact,  the 
least  virulent  germs  oftentimes  are  accompanied 
by  the  most  extensive  and  deep-seated  destruction 
of  body  organs  and  cause  the  most  stubborn  dis- 
eases, as  does  the  tubercular  bacillus. 

The  destruction  is  not  caused  by  the  germ  itself 
or  its  toxin  but  by  the  attempt  of  the  body  to  over- 
come the  germ — what  pathologists  call  the  reac- 
tion of  the  body  against  the  invading  organism. 
All  these  germs,  virulent  and  not,  are  called  "path- 
ogenic organisms",  whether  of  the  plant  kind  or 
the  animal  kind ;  pathogenic  because  they  produce 
disease.  In  order  to  understand  how  osteopathy 
works  in  these  diseases,  it  is  needful  to  study  a 

195 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

little  the  germs  themselves — or  some  few  types  of 
the  germs — and  the  diseases  they  cause ;  to  study 
rather  how  the  body  tries  to  overcome  the  germs 
and  their  toxins. 

Micro-organisms,  as  we  have  seen,  are  either 
plant  forms  or  animal  forms.  Organisms  called 
bacteria  belong  to  the  lowest  forms  of  plant  life, 
and  the  simplest  forms  of  animal  life  are  called 
protozoa.  Of  these  low  forms  of  plant  and  animal 
life  many  hundreds  of  kinds  are  known,  but  only 
a  few — say  about  thirty — are  harmful  to  man. 
Some  few  other  kinds  are  harmful  to  the  lower 
animals  and  not  to  man;  some  of  those  that  are 
harmful  to  man  are  harmless  for  the  lower  ani- 
mals, and  some  of  the  pathogenic  germs  are  harm- 
ful to  man  and  lower  animals  both.  These  varied 
facts  have  made  it  possible  for  bacteriologists  to 
experiment  on  animals  with  germs  that  are  also 
injurious  to  man,  and  artificially  to  reproduce  in 
animals  diseases  which  are  common  in  man  and 
study  the  beginnings,  the  progress  and  the  termi- 
nation of  these  diseases  (and  many  other  facts) 
at  their  leisure  and  under  conditions  impossible 
when  the  diseases  are  found  in  the  human  body. 

Most  of  the  infectious  diseases  commonly  famil- 
iar are  caused  by  bacteria — organisms  of  the  plant 
kingdom;  while  only  a  few  of  the  infectious  dis- 
eases are  caused  by  micro-organisms  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  Smallpox  and  syphilis  are  the  most 
common  diseases  caused  by  animal  organisms. 
Until  very  recently,  it  was  believed  that  typhus 
fever  and  scarlet  fever  were  caused  by  animal 
organisms,  but  it  has  now  been  shown  that  the 

196 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

invading  organisms  in  these  two  diseases  are  bac- 
teria, a  bacillus  in  both  cases.  Bacteria  are  main- 
ly of  two  kinds — cocci  (minute  spherical  organ- 
isms) and  bacilli  (minute  rod-like  organisms). 
There  are  many  different  cocci  as  well  as  many 
different  bacilli,  and  only  about  twenty-five  of 
these  produce  disease  in  the  human  body,  the 
others  being  harmless. 

DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN   INFECTIOUS   AND 
CONTAGIOUS  DISEASES 

It  is  desirable  to  explain  what  infectious  and 
contagious  diseases  are ;  rather  what  is  sought  to 
be  conveyed  by  these  two  terms.  When  we  say 
a  disease  is  infectious  we  mean  it  is  caused  by 
one  of  the  pathogenic  germs  that  has  invaded  the 
body  and  is  growing  there.  When  we  say  a  dis- 
ease is  contagious  we  mean  that  the  germ  causing 
it  is  readily  and  easily  passed  on  from  the  person 
infected  to  other  persons.  Therefore,  it  would 
appear  that  all  contagious  diseases  are  infectious 
also,  but  that  all  infectious  diseases  are  not  neces- 
sarily contagious.  This  used  to  be  the  general 
opinion.  But  in  recent  years  the  confusion  in 
this  matter  of  infectious  and  contagious  diseases 
has  been  slowly  cleared  up.  All  contagious  dis- 
eases are  infectious,  but  all  infectious  diseases  are 
also  contagious — for  some  persons.  A  non-con- 
tagious disease  is  caused  by  a  germ — bacterium  or 
animal  organism  —  that  is  easily  passed  around. 
That  is  to  say  if  numerous  persons  in  a  community 
are  highly  susceptible  to  the  particular  germ,  nu- 
merous persons  will  take  the  germ  in  and  it  will 
grow  in  them.     But  it  would  seem  to  be  clear  that 

197 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

the  extent  of  the  infection  (contagion  in  this  case) 
will  depend  upon  two  things:  first,  the  suscepti- 
bility of  numerous  persons  in  the  community,  and 
secondly,  the  method  by  which  the  germ  is  passed 
around. 

Now  contagion  means  contact,  but  contact  can 
only  mean  contact  with  the  germ,  whether  that 
contact  is  encompassed  by  actual  touch  with  the 
infected  person's  body  (and  hence  with  the  germ 
in  that  body)  or  contact  apart  from  the  person's 
body — ^the  germ  having  been  scattered  about  by 
the  infected  person  in  one  or  another  way. 

There  is,  therefore,  in  fact,  no  real  distinction 
between  infection  and  contagion.  If  all  but  a  few 
persons  in  a  community  are  immune  to  a  germ, 
such  a  germ  may  be  brought  into  contact  with 
such  persons — they  may  actually  take  it  in — but 
it  will  not  grow  in  their  tissues,  and  the  disease 
can  not  be  called  contagious,  in  the  old  meaning 
of  the  word.  Few  persons  in  the  world  are  sus- 
ceptible to  leprosy.  Therefore,  this  disease,  which 
was  regarded  as  contagious,  is  now  no  longer  re- 
garded so.  Contact  with  lepers  (or  with  the  germ) 
causes  the  disease  only  in  an  insignificant  few. 
Bacteriologists  in  recent  times  have  come  to  be- 
lieve that  all  disease-making  germs  must  be 
passed  directly  from  person  to  person ;  that  few  if 
any  infections — ^tuberculosis,  pneumonia,  la 
grippe  and  so  on — are  carried  in  the  air  or  food. 
Close  proximity  to  the  infected  person  is  believed 
to  be  necessary,  the  germ  being  coughed  or 
sneezed  out  and  directly  taken  in  by  the  new  vic- 
tim's nose  or  mouth.     Again  germs  are  trans- 

19S 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

mitted  by  animals  from  man  to  man;  by  flies, 
mosquitoes,  and  perhaps  dogs,  cats,  and  directly 
from  rats  to  fleas,  and  by  fleas  to  man,  as  in  the 
bubonic  plague;  or  by  lice,  as  in  typhus  and  re- 
lapsing fever.  The  sleeping  sickness  is  caused  by 
a  microscopic  animal  organism  that  is  conveyed 
by  the  bite  of  an  African  fly ;  malaria,  as  is  well 
known,  by  a  microscopic  parasite  transmitted 
from  man  to  man  by  the  bite  of  the  mosquito; 
also,  in  a  similar  manner  is  yellow  fever  passed 
about  among  men.  Scarlet  fever  is  passed  to 
others  in  the  nasal  and  throat  secretion  of  the 
patient,  and  the  same  is  probably  true  of  small- 
pox. Sneezing  and  coughing  out  invisible  droplets 
of  germ-laden  saliva,  and  the  taking  in  of  these 
droplets  into  the  nose  and  mouth  of  others,  while 
the  germs  are  yet  alive,  cause  most  of  the  pneu- 
monia and  tuberculosis  we  see  around  us.  Kissing 
is  the  indirect  cause  of  we  do  not  know  how  many 
cases  of  pneumonia,  tuberculosis,  and  la  grippe. 
Unclean  habits  have  probably  more  to  do  with  the 
passing  about  of  typhoid  fever  than  polluted  water 
supply.  As  long  as  men  are  herded  together  like 
cattle  in  the  cities  and  the  other  cattle  pens  of  in- 
dustry (men  ignorant  of  such  facts  as  these)  the 
world  will  always  be  threatened  with  infectious 
diseases,  or  remain  actual  victims  of  them.  The 
only  reason  that  boils  and  "blood  poisoning"  are 
not  as  common  as  hunger  is  because  only  a  few 
persons  per  100,000  are  susceptible  to  the  staphy- 
lococcus pyogenes  aureus,  and  to  the  streptococcus 
pyogenes — two  insignificant  invisible  plant  organ- 

199 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

isms — bacteria — of  the  lowest  and  simplest  forms 
of  living  things. 

Another  interesting  fact  about  infectious  dis- 
ease is  this:  Only  one  kind  of  germ  may  be  the 
cause  of  several  different  diseases  so  called,  de- 
pending upon  the  location  in  the  body  where  the 
germ  chances  to  be  growing.  Thus  colon  bacillus 
may  cause  abscesses  in  the  bladder,  the  kidney, 
or  in  other  parts  of  the  body ;  pneumococcus  may 
cause  bladder  disease,  pneumonia,  or  a  "cold"  and 
its  toxin  may  cause  death  from  kidney  disease; 
streptococcus  pyogenes  may  cause  tonsillitis,  and 
spreading  from  the  tonsil  through  the  blood  may 
produce  abscesses  all  over  the  body,  or  may  simply 
stop  with  the  tonsil ;  the  same  germ  that  produces 
inflammation  of  the  joints  (so-called  rheuma- 
tism), may  pass  to  the  heart,  grow  there,  and 
growing  there  cause  what  used  to  be  called  rheu- 
matic heart.  The  germ  of  syphilis  may  kill  its 
host  by  destroying  the  liver,  or  the  blood  vessels, 
or  the  kidney,  or  the  brain.  Many  cases  of 
"Bright's  disease"  are  caused  by  syphilis,  which 
likewise  may  destroy  the  eyes  of  the  patient  if  it 
be  growing  in  the  eye.  Scores  of  text  books  of 
pathology  have  been  written  for  the  instruction 
of  students  and  physicians  in  the  details  of  how 
all  these  things — and  many  more — are  accom- 
plished by  the  germs  of  disease  growing  in  the 
body. 

When  large  numbers  of  persons  in  a  community 
are  highly  susceptible  to  a  disease  germ,  and  this 
disease  germ  is  easily  passed  around  through  some 
agency  that  is  not  directly  under  the  control  of 

200 


FOUNDER     OF    OSTEOPATHY 

man  by  strict  quarantine,  say  an  insect  such  as  a 
fly,  or  a  louse,  or  a  flea,  the  community  is  ap- 
pafled  by  an  epidemic.  An  epidemic  of  disease 
is  only  some  bacterium  or  animal  organism  seen 
at  its  best  from  its  own  point  of  view — at  its  worst 
from  our  point  of  view.  But  epidemics  do  not  do 
one-thousandth  of  the  damage  or  death  that  is 
done  by  the  germ  that  takes  its  toll  continuously, 
day  in  and  day  out,  without  becoming  "epidemic" 
at  all.  It  is  these  disease  germs  that  are  the  hard- 
est in  reality  to  fight,  because  no  quarantine  is 
waged  against  them  at  all,  nor  can  ever  be  waged 
until  all  men  are  made  intelligent,  and  the  public 
conscience  is  raised  to  the  pitch  where  an  injury 
to  any  one  person  in  a  community  is  seen  to  be  a 
danger  that  threatens  all.  How  can  quarantine 
or  law  prevent  a  man  from  sneezing  and  coughing 
in  a  crowded  public  place,  when  his  saliva  may  be, 
or  is,  loaded  with  destructive  germs,  unknown  to 
himself  or  others?  But  such  a  "quarantine" 
would  be  the  only  one  that  would  safeguard  the 
people  from  the  diseases  carried  by  them,  whether 
knowingly  or  not,  in  their  own  bodies. 

EPIDEMICS 

One  way  to  wipe  out,  or  at  least  suspend  infec- 
tious diseases  would  be  to  render  the  people  im- 
mune to  them,  or  at  any  rate  render  very  large 
numbers  of  the  people  immune  and  thus  break  up 
the  track  along  which  the  germs  are  carried,  be- 
cause if  numerous  islands  of  immunity  are  thus 
established  the  spread  of  the  germs  will  stop 
when,  in  the  course  of  their  spread,  they  chance 
upon  one  of  the  islands  ("islands"  meaning  im- 

201 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

mune  individuals  or  groups  of  them) .  The  hope 
of  being  able  to  do  this  raised  its  head  high  when, 
away  back  in  1890,  Behring,  the  German  bacteri- 
ologist, discovered  the  antitoxin  for  diphtheria. 
That  was  the  beginning — the  big  beginning — of 
all  the  work  that  has  been  done  in  immunity  to 
infections.  This  discovery  likewise  raised  the 
hope  of  being  able  to  cure  infectious  diseases  by 
means  of  serums  and  vaccines,  and  the  whole 
world  knows  what  a  fuss  has  been  made  by  this 
hope  within  the  past  twenty-five  years.  It  also 
knows  how  little  has  been  accomplished  by  the 
activity  of  the  most  acute  scientists  in  the  world. 
Infectious  diseases  are  still  with  us,  and  in  virtu- 
ally the  same  amount  as  they  were  previously  to 
1890,  the  year  when  Behring  made  his  discovery. 
This  does  not  mean  that  Behring  and  the  other 
bacteriologists  of  the  world  were  a  parcel  of  fools. 
It  simply  means  that  all  human  science  has  its  lim- 
itations. 

A.  T.  STILL  THE  PIONEER  IMMUNOLOGIST 

Long  before  Behring,  or  any  other  bacteriolo- 
gist, worked  in  this  line.  Dr.  Andrew  Taylor  Still, 
the  founder  of  osteopathy,  began  to  treat  infec- 
tions on  the  principle  that  the  body  itself  con- 
tained the  cure,  which  was  virtually  the  announce- 
ment of  the  theory  of  immunity;  and  Still  will 
ultimately  be  given  credit  for  this  original  thought 
in  the  future  history  of  medicine.  In  former 
chapters  we  have  told  already  how  and  why 
the  osteopath  secures  results  in  the  treatment 
of  infectious  diseases,  and  have  explained  how  this 
treatment  is  in  absolute  agreement  with  the  facts 

202 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

of  infection  and  immunity  as  science  understands 
these  things  today.  Let  us  now  glance  at  the  re- 
sults of  osteopathic  treatment  of  infectious  dis- 
eases and  the  results  of  laboratory  experiments 
by  biological  experimentalists  from  a  point  of 
view  from  which  can  be  seen  those  peculiar  and 
interesting  parallelisms  mentioned  in  the  first  part 
of  this  paper. 

First  and  foremost  we  make  no  stupid,  ignorant 
or  undemonstrable  claim  when  we  say  that  oste- 
opathic treatment  quickly  stops  the  growth  of 
many  pathogenic  germs  in  the  human  body,  espe- 
cially when  the  infection  is  treated  early  in  its 
course.  The  earlier  it  is  given  the  treatment  the 
better  the  results.  All  osteopaths  know  this  to  be 
true.  Now  this  is  precisely  what  Behring  found 
to  be  the  case  with  his  antitoxin  treatment  for 
diphtheria,  and  it  is  the  one  important  consid- 
eration in  the  application  of  the  antitoxin  in  hu- 
man diphtheria.  When  the  powerful  and  highly 
diffusible  toxins  of  the  diphtheria  organism  have 
destroyed  beyond  repair  vital  organs  of  the  body, 
neither  antitoxin  nor  osteopathy  can  reconstruct 
them.  Neither  antitoxin  nor  osteopathy  can  re- 
store the  dead  to  life,  and  in  such  hopeless  cases 
the  patient  is  virtually  dead  long  before  the  heart 
ceases  to  beat.  But  if  the  treatment  (whether 
antitoxin  or  osteopathy)  be  given  while  there  are 
as  yet  comparatively  little  toxins  in  the  blood  and 
the  tissues,  the  antibodies  that  we  must  assume 
are  made  following  osteopathic  treatment  which 
lowers  tissue  tension  along  the  spine,  caused  by 
the  toxins,  and  thus  releases  the  nerves — these 

203 


DR.   ANDREW  TAYLOR   STILL 

antibodies,  we  say,  quickly  neutralize  the  toxins, 
just  because  there  is  but  a  small  quantity  of  them 
as  yet  present.  In  other  words,  it  is  easier  to 
repel  the  small  advance  of  an  invading  army  than 
it  is  to  save  the  country  after  a  horde  of  the  enemy 
have  ravaged  and  sacked  it  and  killed  half  the 
population. 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  here  is  simply  this,  that 
osteopathic  treatment,  in  all  the  infections  it  is 
known  to  stop  and  cure,  acts  precisely  as  the 
antitoxin  cure  acts  in  diphtheria. 

But  this  is  only  the  first  of  the  parallelisms  we 
have  in  mind,  and  it  is  the  most  striking  because 
the  antitoxin  for  diphtheria  is  the  only  serum 
that  has  given  any  degree  whatever  of  satisfaction 
or  assurance  of  results  even  under  the  most  favor- 
able human  conditions. 

DIPHTHERIA 

Antitoxin  for  diphtheria  is  made  by  growing 
diphtheria  germs  in  bouillon  for  several  weeks, 
killing  the  germs,  allowing  the  bacteria  to  settle 
to  the  bottom  of  the  flask,  and  then  using  the  fluid 
bouillon  (which  contains  the  toxins)  for  injection 
in  increasing  doses  into  horses,  until  the  serum  of 
the  horse  is  found  to  be  sufficiently  antitoxic  to 
the  toxin.  One  unit  of  antitoxin  (according  to 
the  classic  formula)  is  as  much  of  the  antitoxin 
as  will  neutralize  100  doses  of  the  toxin,  one  of 
which  will  kill  a  250-gram  guinea  pig  in  96  hours. 
Now  this  principle  and  procedure  have  been 
found  to  work  well  enough  in  diphtheria,  and  then 
only  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  disease,  before  the 
toxin  has  killed  too  much  body  tissue,  but  they 

204 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

do  not  work  at  all  in  any  other  infection.  Bacteri- 
ologists and  immunologists  have  ransacked  the 
whole  world  to  duplicate  the  results  of  diphtheria 
antitoxin  in  other  infectious  diseases  (even  in  al- 
cohol and  drug  habits)  but  have  everywhere  and 
all  of  the  time  failed!  Small  claims  of  success 
in  small  percentages  have  been  made  by  the  men 
who  have  originated  some  such  serums,  but  not 
one  of  such  serums  has  stood  up!  Serums  have 
been  made  for  all  infections,  but  do  you  hear  much 
about  them  ?  The  fact  that  you  do  not  hear  about 
them  is  evidence  enough,  you  can  be  assured,  that 
such  serums  have  not  stood  the  practical  tests 
even  in  slight  degree,  the  diphtheria  serum,  the 
great  king  of  them  all,  being  heard  of  only  in  a 
way  not  altogether  and  completely  satisfactory- 
even  as  yet — twenty-eight  years  after  its  discov- 
ery, and  full  twenty-four  years  after  its  general 
introduction  and  use  in  all  the  lands  of  Chris- 
tendom. 

The  anti-typhoid  vaccine  (not  serum)  now  be- 
ing used  as  a  preventive  of  typhoid,  seems  to  be 
giving  excellent  results,  especially  as  used  in  the 
world's  armies;  but  (as  is  the  case  with  smallpox 
vaccination)  its  uses  are  entirely  prophylactic 
(not  curative)  and  it  would  be  of  no  service  if 
administered  after  one  had  actually  contracted  ty- 
phoid fever. 

Let  us  take  the  germ  that  causes  lobar  pneu- 
monia— the  pneumococcus  of  Fraenkel  (who  dis- 
covered it) .  Some — many — of  the  best  immunol- 
ogists of  Europe  and  America  have  tried  to  make 
a  serum  which  will  neutralize    the    pneumonia 

205 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

toxin  and  cause  the  germs  to  die  out  in  the  tissues, 
but  have  failed  beyond  help.  No  use.  The  same 
attempts  have  been  made  with  the  germ  that 
causes  typhoid  fever,  but  today  there  is  no  serum 
for  typhoid  fever.  Serums  have  been  tried  for 
bubonic  plague  and  other  infections — virtually  for 
all  infections — with  much  the  same  issue.  The 
results  have  all  been  so  shadowy,  so  uncertain,  so 
very  here  and  there  in  their  character,  that  any 
one  who  has  common  sense,  to  say  nothing  of  sci- 
entific knowledge,  is  disposed  to  shrug  the  shoul- 
ders and  fall  back  into  the  waiting  line.  What 
we  want  is  a  serum  that  will  cure  in  the  earliest 
stages — not  a  serum  that,  being  given  at  the  nat- 
ural crisis  of  the  disease  "cures"  patients  that 
were  just  about  to  sit  up  in  bed  of  their  own  nat- 
ural desire  and  ask  for  bread  and  beefsteak !  No 
serums  of  that  kind  will  ever  be  talked  about  for 
more  than  long  enough  to  allow  the  discoverer 
to  state  his  methods  of  manufacture  and  promptly 
retire,  the  patient  being  up  and  engaged  in  his 
daily  occupation  in  the  meantime ! 

But  theoretically  all  these  serums  should  be  in 
use  and  doing  good  work  right  along. 

Now  is  it  not  strange  that  just  those  very  dis- 
eases which  theoretically  should  fall  in  the  domain 
of  serum  cures  are  the  very  diseases  which  have 
been  found  to  yield  to  osteopathic  treatment  when 
that  treatment  is  administered  early  in  the  infec- 
tion, for  no  osteopath  would  claim  to  have  cured 
pneumonia  or  typhoid  fever,  when  he  had  treated 
that  disease  just  before  the  natural  crisis,  when 
the  patient's  body  cells  had  succeeded  in  making 

206 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

the  needed  amount  of  antibodies  to  neutralize  the 
toxins  and  to  cause  the  germs  to  die  out  in  the 
tissues. 

Osteopaths  are  not  afraid  to  collect  the  vital 
statistics  in  cases  of  pneumonia  and  typhoid  fever 
which  have  been  treated  at  the  beginning  of  the 
invasion.  Such  statistics  are  by  no  means  as  com- 
plete as  the  osteopathic  profession  would  like 
them  to  be,  but  there  are  sufficient  privately  gath- 
ered statistics  of  that  kind  to  warrant  the  private 
conviction  of  numerous  osteopaths  that  pneu- 
monia and  typhoid  fever  yield  quickly  to  the  treat- 
ment when  early  given,  and  the  riper  and  fuller 
such  statistics  grow  the  clearer  does  the  truth  be- 
come that  shines  through  them — uncertain  as  all 
statistics  of  this  kind  must  inevitably  be  in  favor 
of  or  against  the  conclusions  that  men  (whether 
advocates  or  opponents)  draw  from  them. 

Our  desire  was  mainly  to  show  that  the  theory 
of  immunologists  runs  parallel  with  the  practical 
results  which  osteopathy  finds  in  its  treatment  of 
infectious  diseases.  Many  diseases  which  should 
be  curable  by  serums  (or  vaccines)  and  are  not, 
are  found  to  be  curable  by  osteopathic  treatment, 
and  osteopaths  are  ready,  and  have  been  ready 
many  years,  to  submit  to  control  conditions  in 
testing  the  virtue  of  osteopathy  in  such  diseases  in 
a  public  trial,  in  picked  cases,  in  a  public  hospital, 
on  even  terms  with  the  best  and  fairest  minded 
gentlemen  in  the  medical  profession — could  such 
men  be  induced  for  a  few  days  to  abandon  their 
prejudices  and  submit  to  a  practical  trial  for  the 
establishment  of  fact. 

207 


DR.    ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

But  while  osteopaths  at  all  times  have  been  per- 
fectly willing  to  submit  to  such  a  test  of  the  virtue 
of  their  art  and  science,  such  a  test  would  and 
could  not  be  entirely  satisfactory,  any  more  than 
a  similar  test  would  be  satisfactory  in  deciding 
upon  the  virtue  of  a  serum  cure.  For  such  a  trial, 
after  all,  would  only  be  the  application  of  the 
statistical  method,  and  this  method  is  at  best  a 
most  insecure  one,  whether  the  interpretation  of 
the  results  be  favorable  or  the  reverse.  Long 
periods  of  time  and  a  careful  keeping  of  records 
are  essential  in  determining  the  utility  of  any 
cure,  or  other  biological  reaction,  unless  the  reac- 
tion be  almost  invariable ;  in  which  case  the  vari- 
ations from  the  rule  must  be  promptly  understood 
and  accounted  for.  The  ideal  method  of  testing 
osteopathy,  as  well  as  other  reactions  in  these 
things,  is  the  laboratory  experimental  method, 
when  all  conditions  and  facts  are  directly  under 
the  control  of  the  experimenter,  and  the  results, 
when  obtained,  can  absolutely  be  reproduced  at 
the  will  of  the  operator,  such  as  the  time  when 
the  infection  goes  in,  the  uniformity  of  the  indi- 
viduals tested,  the  uniformity  of  the  conditions 
under  which  these  individuals  live  at  the  time  of 
the  experiment,  and  have  lived  previously  to  the 
experiment,  the  material  (that  is,  the  infective 
material)  injected,  and  the  uniformity  of  the  sub- 
sequent and  experimental  treatment  and  results. 

The  lower  animals  alone  offer  such  ideal  sub- 
jects of  experiment,  and  the  results  in  the  use 
of  such  animals  can  be  depended  upon  absolutely 
as  a  sure  clew  to  the  manner  in  which  the  treat- 

208 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

ment,  whatever  it  is,  can  be  assumed  to  act  in  the 
human  body  also,  if  it  be  possible  to  apply  it.  For 
that  reason  the  osteopathic  profession  does  not 
assert  that  laboratory  experiments  on  animals  are 
useless  or  misleading.  This,  indeed,  was  the  po- 
sition which  the  medical  profession  took  strongly, 
and  fought  viciously,  when  biologists  some  years 
ago  began  to  teach  that  drugs  were  always  harm- 
ful to  man  just  because  they  found  in  their  experi- 
ments that  drugs  were  always  harmful  to  the 
lower  animals.  The  medical  doctors  turned  on 
these  scientific  pharmacologists  (working  in  the 
universities,  and  distinctly  not  medical  men  at 
all)  and  fiercely  denounced  them  for  their  teach- 
ing. 

"You  teach  that  drugs  are  harmful  to  man," 
the  medical  men  said,  "because  you  find  them 
harmful  to  animals?  But  guinea  pigs,  rabbits, 
dogs  and  cats  are  not  men,  and  you  have  no  right 
to  conclude  that  because  drugs  are  found  to  injure 
guinea  pigs  and  dogs,  they  are  therefore  injurious 
to  man,  and  that  they  should  not  be  given  for 
the  cure  of  diseases  in  the  human  body.  You  have 
no  business  drawing  such  conclusions.  Guinea 
pigs  and  rabbits  are  not  human  beings,  and  just 
because  drugs  injure  guinea  pigs  and  dogs,  yoti 
should  not  be  allowed  to  teach  that  they  injure 
man". 

But  the  biologists  had  demonstrated,  and  are 
still  demonstrating,  a  great  fact,  just  the  same, 
by  their  experiments  on  animals  with  drugs.  They 
are  still  teaching  their  conclusions  as  facts  and 
today  the  doctor  who  would  use  the  argument 

209 


DR.   ANDREW   TAYLOR   STILL 

quoted  (which  was  loud  in  the  mouths  of  all  ignor- 
ant doctors  twenty  or  even  fifteen  years  ago) 
would  be  put  down  as  an  old-fogy  ignorant  moss- 
back  to  whom  no  well-informed  modern  physician 
of  any  school  would  pay  the  slightest  attention. 
The  biologists  in  the  universities  of  the  world 
(who  are  not  medical  men  at  all — only  scientific 
searchers  for  the  facts,  having  no  ax  but  the  ax 
of  truth  to  grind)  have  battered  down  the  drug 
superstition  by  those  very  same  experiments  on 
animals,  and  by  these  experiments  on  animals 
have  proved  that  drugs  are  always  poison  not  only 
to  animals  but  to  man  too.  By  their  use  of  the 
guinea  pig,  the  rabbit  and  the  dog  they  have 
forced  the  medical  profession  to  line  up  anew  on 
the  drug  question,  and  every  popular  article  in 
every  popular  magazine  and  newspaper  (written 
by  medical  doctors  today)  warns  the  public 
against  the  doctor  who  gives  drugs  (with  perhaps 
two  or  three  exceptions)  to  the  human  body  in 
the  hope  of  curing  disease. 

No!  Those  who  say  that  the  osteopathic  pro- 
fession argues  against  the  conclusions  of  science 
from  experiments  on  lower  animals  to  man  are 
very  unjust  to  the  scientific  attitude  of  that  pro- 
fession. And  if,  here  and  there,  an  osteopath  is 
found  who  makes  such  an  argument,  he  is  proba- 
bly under  the  influence  of  the  old  medical  idea 
in  that  line,  and  is  himself  doing  an  injustice  to 
the  high  scientific  conscience  of  his  own  profes- 
sion, as  well  as  to  the  conscience  and  power  of  the 
world's  best  and  most  conservative  scientific 
thinkers  and  experimentalists,  who  seek  only  the 

210 


FOUNDER    OF    OSTEOPATHY 

facts  as  they  can  be  found  by  the  best  scientific 
methods  known  to  men  today. 

Indeed,  so  far  is  the  great  osteopathic  profes- 
sion from  holding  any  such  antiquated  and  ignor- 
ant view,  that  it  has  put  up  out  of  its  own  hard 
and  honestly  earned  money  a  great  sum  to  endow 
its  Research  Institute  in  Chicago  for  the  very 
purpose,  among  others,  of  using  animal  experi- 
ments to  forward  our  knowledge  of  the  results  of 
osteopathic  treatment.  And  this  national  Re- 
search Institute,  supported  by  the  money  earned 
in  the  treatment  of  human  disease  by  individual 
osteopathic  practitioners,  has,  during  the  four 
years  of  its  existence,  used  the  lower  animals  con- 
tinuously in  the  experiments  which  the  workers 
in  it  have  made,  and  are  making,  to  develop  oste- 
opathic treatment  and  to  draw  conclusions  about 
the  effects  of  osteopathic  treatment  in  man  from 
the  results  of  experiments  made  upon  the  lower 
animals.  And  this  Institute,  in  time,  should  grow 
and  develop,  and  will,  it  is  sincerely  hoped  and 
believed,  be  for  osteopathic  science  what  the  gen- 
eral movement  of  research  has  been  for  science 
in  general  during  the  past  century,  and  especially 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  in  which  time 
this  very  kind  of  research  has  forced  a  re-order- 
ing and  a  deep  and  great  reform  in  all  opinion 
and  belief  concerning  disease  and  its  treatment 
in  man  and  the  lower  animals. 


211 


INDEX 


Abderhalden,  30. 

Abderhalden,  test  for  pregnancy,  68. 

Acne,  75 

Acquapendente,  Fabricio  ab,  5. 

Adjustment,  osteopathic,  180. 

Adjuvants,  183. 

Age  the,  in  which  Still  entered  upon 

his  medical  researches,  18-23. 
Altmann,  34. 

American  School  of  Osteopathy,  16,  17. 
Angina    pectoris,    mistaken    diagnosis 

of,  99. 
Animal  experimentation,  14,  16,  196. 
Animal   experimentation   alone   exact 

and  dependable,  208. 
Animal  experimentation  destroyed  the 

dogma  of  drug  therapy,  ?10. 
Animal   experimentation,   osteopathic 

research  thru,  211. 
Animal  experimentation  results  in,  51 
Animal    experimentation    vindicated, 

208. 
Anodynes,    injury    from    in    treating 

"rheumatism,"  95. 
Antibodies,  64.  65,  70,  71,  85. 
Antibodies,  formation  of,  149. 
Antibodies,    osteopathic   increase   and 

activation  of,  150,  153,  154. 
Antibodies,    produced    by   osteopathic 

stimulation,  56. 
"Antibody  content"  of  blood,  a  nor- 
mal secretion,  56. 
Antitoxins,  197,  180. 
Antitoxins,  discovery  of,  5. 
Antitoxins,  how  made,  204. 
Antityphoid  vaccine,  188,  189. 
Antityphoid   vaccine    useless   after 

typhoid  is  contracted,  205. 
Appendicitis,    190. 
Artery,  the  rule  of,  supreme,  29. 
Arthritis,  gonorrheal,  110. 
Arthritis,  rheumatoid,  112. 

Bacteremia,   73. 

Bacteria.  196. 

Bacteria,  nature  of,  121. 

Baer,  von,  20.  22. 

Becquerel.  15. 

Behring,  von,  5,  30,  202. 

Behring,  von,  found  the  early  adminis- 
tration of  anti-toxin  in  diphtheria 
imperative,  203. 

Bennett,  4,  50. 

Bennett,  first  compelled  abandonment 
of  bleeding,  5. 

Bernard,  Claude,  20,  22. 

Bernard's  theory,  all  ingested  sub- 
stances either  food  or  poisons,  20. 

Biologists  are  not  medical  physi- 
cians, 210. 

Blood  as  the  agent  of  metabolism,  140. 

Blood,  carries  the  body's  healing,  28. 


Blood,  circulation  disturbed  through 
spinal  lesions,  11,  12. 

Blood,  clotting,  history  of,  141. 

Blood,  poisoning,  73. 

"Blood   seed"   theory.   Still's,  antici- 
pated "blastema"  theory",  33. 

Body  resistance,  58,  59. 

Boils,  75,  82. 

Boils  and  acne  vaccine,  187 

Boils,  infrequent  susceptibility  to,  199. 

Body  chemism,  170. 

Body  chemism,  what  interferes  with 
it  should  not  enter  the  body,  174. 

Body  contains  all  its  own  "medi- 
cines," 8. 

Body  makes  its  own  medicines,  1 79. 

Bordet,  30,  73,  145. 

Bordet's  blood  researches,  158,  159. 

Bowman,  22. 

Bronchitis,  179. 

Bronchitis,  chronic,  when  due  to  heart, 
spinal  or  rib  lesions,  182. 

Brown-Setiuard,  57. 

Bubonic  plague,  206. 

Buchner,  30. 

Bucher,  blood  researcher,  146. 

Bursitis,  99. 

Cancer,  serum  test  for,  68. 

Catarrh,  180. 

Cells,  all  other,  are  slaves  of  the 
nerve  cells,  176. 

Cells,  as  intermediaries  between  nerve 
fibrils  and  blood  elements,  141. 

"Cell  theory"  of  Schwann,  19. 

Cerebro-spinal  meningitis,  181. 

Chemisms,  body,  55. 

Chemism  of  body  is  nerve  control- 
led, 137. 

Cholera  bacilli,  killed  by  normal  blood 
serum,  145,  146. 

"Cold",  common,  so-called,  presents 
same  sort  of  phenomena  of  im- 
munity in  recovery  as  typhoid,    157. 

"Cold",  simple,  179 

Colitis,  190. 

Colon  bacillus.  74.  200,  202. 

Commercial  drug  houses'  exaggerated 
claims,  184. 

Contageous  disease,  what  the  term 
means,  197. 

Contractures  of  spinal  tissue,  43. 

"Controls",  or  "control  experiments" 
in  typhoid  research,  153. 

Counter  irritants  35. 

Cure,  only  rational,  lies  in  the  nature 
of  the  tissues  and  blood  them- 
selves,  157,  158,  160. 

Cures,  research  investigators  make  no 
claims  of,  155. 

Cures,  so-called,  by  animal  serums  and 
vaccines,  usually  applied  by  doctors 
ignorant  of  their  nature,  155,  156. 


212 


INDEX 


"Cures"  are  the  claim  of  commercial 
pharmaceutical  houses  only,  155. 

Darwin.  10,  19,31,34. 
Depurant,  80. 
Diarrhea,  190. 
Diphtheria,  75,  179,  204. 
Diphtheria  antitoxin,  156,  187. 
Diphtheria,  Schick  test  for,  68. 
Disease,    a    chemical    reaction    among 

molecule-complexes,  9. 
Disease,  chronic,  59. 
Disease,  a  struggle  for  life  among  living 

forms,  32. 
Disease,  various  origins  of,   130,   131, 

136. 
Drugs,    all,    harmful    thru    chemical 

anarchy  produced  in  the  body,  52. 
Drug  reactions  on  the  body,  not  under- 
stood by  prescribing  doctors,  156. 
Drug    "tonics"    discredited    by    nerve 

physiology,  133. 
Ductless  gland  stimulation,  56. 
Dysentery,  acute  and  chronic,  90. 
Dysentery,  bloody  flux,  179. 
Dysentery,  drug  treatment  of,  90  . 
Dysentery,    stopped    by    osteopathic 

manipulation,    90. 

Ehrlich,  Prof.  Paul,  30,  58,  73,  145. 
Ehrlich,  abandoned  serum  cures,  184, 

185,  186. 
Ehrlich,  classified  white  cells,  163. 
Ehrlich's  theory  serviceable  to  explain 

osteopathic  therapy,  149. 
Erhlich's  side-chain  theory  of  immunity 

19,  149. 
Eclectic  therapy,  4. 
Embryology,  comparative,  16. 
Endocarditis,    gonorrheal  infection  in, 

112. 
Epidemics,  201. 
Evil,  the  social.  111. 
Evolution,  16. 
Experimental  pathology  has  given  up 

hope  of  further  serum  cures,  188. 

Fatigue,  osteopathic  refreshment  after, 
92. 

Fatigue,  toxins  of,  93. 

Flaubert's  attack  on  apothecary  sys- 
tem without  effect,  49. 

Flaubert,  medical  reformer,  2. 

Flexner's  serum  for  spinal  menin- 
gitis a  failure,  187. 

Food,    175. 

Foot  arch,  disabled,  100. 

Generalizations,  the  two  grand,  of 
Still,  15. 

Generic  law  of  the  spina!  lesion,  42. 

Germicides,  natural,  87. 

Germicides,  the  blood  and  tissues  of 
the  patient  himself,  the  only  de- 
pendable, 185. 

Germs,  no  medical  treatment  for  which 
will  not  hurt  the  patient,  178. 

Gonococcus,  74. 

Gout,  95. 


Gout,  uric  acid  theory  of,  now  aband- 
oned, 95. 

Gruber's  discovery  of  typhoid  germ 
agglutinization,  151. 

Haeckel,  20,  34. 

Hahnemann,  3,  4,  50. 

Hahnemann  enlarged  the  pharma- 
copia,  50. 

Harvey,  3,  6. 

Headache,  due  to  neck  lesions,  102. 

Health,  biological  definition  of,  134. 

Heart  arteriosclerosis,  prevention  of, 
106.  107. 

Heart  disease,  so  called,  often  stoma- 
chic derangement,  177. 

Heart,  natural  osteopathic  stimulation 
of,  181. 

Heart  failure  due  to  excessive  drug 
stimulation,  182. 

Heart,  rheumatic,  105. 

Helmholtz.  19,  22. 

Henle,  20.  22. 

Hewson,  William,  141. 

Homeopathic  tenets,  3. 

Hunter,  John,  3,  141. 

Hydrophobia,  188. 

Immunity,  141. 

Immunity,  absolute,  not  a  condition 
of  survival,  10. 

Immunity,  all  infectious  diseases  con- 
fer. 27.  28. 

Immunity,  first  announced  by  Still. 
59.  60. 

Immunity  from  typhoid.  157. 

Immunity  from  common  "cold".  157. 

Immunity  from  diphtheria.  157. 

Immunity,  general,  of  blood  and  tissues 
to  disease.  9. 

Immunity,  "islands  of."  201. 

Immunity,  law  of.  holds  for  all  liv- 
ing things.  16. 

Immunity,  natural,  58. 

Immunity,  phagocytic  theory  of,  85. 

Immunity  theory  is  paralleled  by  os- 
teopathy's practical  results,  207. 

Immunity,  what  it  is,  144. 

Immunization  promoted  actively  by 
osteopathy,  154. 

Immunization  to  cholera  germs,  147-8. 

Immunologists  failed  to  duplicate  re- 
sults of  diphtheria  antitoxin  in  other 
infectious  diseases,  205. 

Inert  substances,  174. 

Infantile  paralysis,  74,  188. 

Infections,  aborted  by  osteopathy, 
64,  68. 

Infection  and  contagion  without  real 
difference,   198. 

Infectious  diseases,  58. 

Infectious  diseases,  only  possible  cure 
for,  lies  in  the  chemical  resistance 
of  the  body  to  the  germs,  179. 

Infectious  diseases,  osteopathy  avail- 
able for,  25. 

Infectious  disease,  what  it  is,  197. 

Infection,  how  the  body  fights  it  off, 
180. 


213 


INDEX 


Infection,  mixed,  111. 
Inflammation,  84. 
Influenza,  spinal  lesions  in,  69. 
Inhibitory    treatment    in    dysentery, 

90,  91. 
Intestinal  putrefaction,  190. 
Intestinal      putrefaction,      osteopathy 

serviceable  in,  191. 
Intestinal   putrefaction,    as   source   of 

"rheumatic"  pains,  109. 

Kirksville,  Missouri,  16,  25. 

Koch,  30. 

Koch's  laboratory,  5. 

La  grippe,  influenza,  69,  179. 

Lane,  Professor  Michael  A.  Lane, 
research   investigator.  Foreword. 

Leprosy,  198. 

Lesions,  39,  42. 

Lesions,  faults  in  the  organic  environ- 
ment of  cells,  131. 

Lesions  primary  or  secondary,  55. 

Lesions,  spinal,  how  they  effeci  phy- 
siological action,  70,  71. 

Lesions,  osteopathic,  when  caused  by 
toxins,  69. 

Lesions,  spinal,  in  influenza,  69. 

Lesion  theory  hangs  on  the  theory  of 
immunity,  24. 

Liebig,  19. 

Liver  activities,  174. 

Locomotor  ataxia,  35. 

Macallum,  blood  investigator,  143. 

Macallum's  theory  of  blood  origin,  143. 

Malarial  fever,  192. 

Manipulations,  osteopathic,  exaggerate 
the  body's  reactions  against  toxins, 
55. 

Measles,  27. 

Meat  eating  in  excess,  109. 

Medicine,  modern,  preventive  not 
therapeutic,   53. 

Metabolism,  140. 

Metabolism,  blood  and  nerve  reaction 
in,  141. 

Metchnikoff,  Professor  Elie,  20,  30,  73. 
85,  145. 

Metchnikoff' s  d  scovery  of  phagocy- 
tosis, 164,  165. 

Moro's  test  for  tuberculosis,  68. 

Moving  picture  of  the  body's  reac- 
tions, 70. 

Mueller,  Johannes,  founder  of  modern 
physiology,  19,  22,  36. 

Mueller,  almost  his  every  discovery 
was  later  disproved,  32. 

Mumps,  27. 

Natural  selection,  31. 

Nerve  cells,  their  essential  structures 
and  properties,  122,  123. 

Nerve  blocking,  136. 

Nerve  cells  do  not  reproduce  them- 
selves as  all  other  tissue  cells  do,  119. 

Nerve  cells,  the  permanency  of,  an  ar- 
gument against  drug  taking,  120. 

Nerve  control  extends  to  cells  of  blood 
stream,  70. 

Nerve  control  of  organs  affords  osteo- 


paths a  better  route  than  drugs  to 
physiological    adjustment,    138. 

Nerves  control  the  body,  osteopath 
controls  the  nerves,  120,  128. 

Nerve  diseases,  true,  comparatively 
rare,  131-133. 

Nerve  fibres,  176. 

Nerve  fibres  cause  muscle  cell  to  con- 
tract, gland  cell  to  secrete,  etc.,  125. 

Nerve  fibre,  one,  will  extend  from  its 
cell  in  spinal  cord  to  the  skin  of  the 
finger  or  toe  tip,  123,  125. 

Nerves  react  on  blood  through  inter- 
mediation of  other  tissue  cells,  141. 

Nerve  symptoms  usually  a  proof  of 
healthy  nerves,  134. 

Nerve  tissue,  attacked  directly  by 
germs  of  tetanus  and  hydrophobia, 
but  by  everj'  few  other  germs,  133. 

Nerve  tissue,  the  master  of  the  body, 
128. 

Neuralgia,  intercostal,  98. 

Neuritis,  brachial,  99. 

Neuritis,  caused  by  lesions,  98. 

Normalization,  180. 

Nuttal,  American  blood  researcher,  30, 
146. 

Opsonins,  84. 

Opsonins,  effect  of  increasing  natural 
blood  flow  upon,  88. 

Osier.  Sir  William,  M.  D.,  4. 

Osteopath,  controls  the  blood's  activ- 
ity, 145. 

Osteopath,  controls  the  "master  tis- 
sue" for  his  influence  on  metabolism, 
176,  177. 

Osteopath,  operates  on  most  soundly 
scientific  basis  known,  72. 

Osteopath,  utilizes  and  controls  na- 
tural chemism  of  the  body  for  his 
"medicines",  developing  resistance, 
176,  181. 

Osteopath,  works  upon  the  natmral 
chemisms  of  the  body,  137,  138. 

Osteopathic  lesion,  37. 

Osteopathic  research  thru  animal  ex- 
perimentation, 211. 

Osteopathic  results  accounted  for,  60. 

Osteopaths  assist  body  to  overcome 
bacterial  invasion  by  normalization 
of  spinal  tissues,  182. 

Osteopaths  got  results  before  their 
theories  were  elaborated,  158. 

Osteopaths  promote  immunity  in  in- 
fections, 87. 

Osteopaths  ready  for  a  control  ex- 
periment in  public  trial,  207. 

Osteopathy  at  least  does  no  harm,  74. 

Osteopathy  builds  up  resistance  in  in- 
fectious   rheumatism,    104. 

Osteopathy  cures  more  infectious 
diseases  than  vaccine  therapy.  75. 

Osteopathy  does  not  complicate  na- 
ture by  disastrous  counter  reactions, 
72. 

Osteopathy  founded  upon  backbone 
lesion  adjustment,   12. 


214 


INDEX 


Osteopathy  not  massage,  55. 

Osteopathy  offers  alluring  field  for 
laboratory  experiment,  56. 

Osteopathy  promotes  immunity,  89,  90. 

Osteopathy  routs  infectious  diseases  by 
increasing  blood  flow,  166. 

Osteopatiiy  stops  the  growth  of  many 
pathogenic  germs,  203. 

Osteopathy  tested  clinically,  10. 

Osteopathy  upheld  by  all  biologic  dis- 
covery, 165. 

Osteopathy,  why  it  is  a  drugless  sys- 
tem, 166. 

Osteopathy  works  like  antitoxin  in 
diphtheria,    203,  204. 

Pains,  osteopathy  available  for  when 

of  meciianical  or  germ  origin,  113. 
Pasteur,  9,  19.  22. 
Pathology,  experimental,  works  along 

osteopathic  lines,  186. 
Pathology,  modern,  birth  of,  7. 
Pfeiffer,  30,  145. 

Pfeiffer's  phenomenon  of  rising  im- 
munity in  the  animal  body  against 

living  cholera  germs,  146,  147, 
Pharmacological     maxim,     chemically 

active  substances  ingested  are  either 

foods  or  poisons,  49,  175. 
Pharmacological     research  arose  long 

after  Still's  new  therapy,  51. 
Pharmacology  at  length  exploded  drug 

therapy,  52. 
Pharmacology's  discredit  of  drugging 

met  with    the  violent  opposition  of 

physicians,    51-52. 
Pharmacologists    were    denounced    by 

physicians,      209,  210. 
Phagocytes,  163,  179,  180. 
Plague,  180. 
Pneumonia,  27,  179. 
Pneumococcus,  200. 
Pneumococcus  of  Fraenkel,  205. 
Poison,  175. 
Poisons,  all  active  ingested  substances 

not  foods  are,  49,  175. 
Predisposing  cause  of  disease,  59. 
Principle,  the,  underlying  vaccine  and 

osteopathic  therapy  are  identical,  68. 
Prostatitis,  191. 
Protein,     173. 
Protoplasm,  173. 
Protozoa,  196. 
Protozoan     diseases,     smallpox     and 

syphilis,  196. 
Pus,   80. 

Pus,  how  formed,  165. 
Pus  pockets  in  tissues,  107,  108. 

Ramsay,  15. 

Raymond,  22. 

Research,    all,    supports    Still's    main 

theories,  10. 
Research,    European,    confirms    Still's 

teachings,    26,    58. 
Research   Institute,   The  A.   T.   Still, 

16,  211. 
Research    investigators    do    not    seek 

especially  to  find  "cures,"  162,  164. 


Research,  modern  blood,  vindicates  the 
supreme  intuitions  of  Still,  185. 

Research,  osteopathic,  56. 

Research,  osteopathic,  into  influenza, 
61,  64. 

"Colds",  62. 

Research  workers,  European,  vindicate 
theory  and  practice  of  Sti'l,  26,  58. 

Resistance  increases  the  moment  dis- 
ease begins,  59. 

Resistance,  natura.,  increased  by 
osteopathy,  64. 

Resistance,  natural,  released  by  tissue 
adjustment  or  stimulation,  60. 

Resistance,  osteopathic  increase  of,  91. 

"Rheumatism",    94,  189,  190. 

"Rheumatism,"  articular,  early  osteo- 
pathic administration  in,  106. 

Rheumatism,  articular  or  infectious 
varieties  of,  102. 

"Rheumatism",  caused  by  lesions,  98. 

Rheumatism,  infectious,  no  serum  or 
vaccine  effective  in,  105. 

"Rheumatism",  so-called,  really  many 
different  ills,  96. 

"Rheumatism",  varieties  of ,  osteopathy 
is  available  for,  107. 

Rib,  twisted,  cause  of  breast  and  arm 
pain,  99. 

Rule,  the,  of  the  artery  supreme,  29. 

Scarlet  fever,  27,  74,  179. 

Schick  test  for  diphtheria  anti-bodies, 
68. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  19,  22,  33,  34. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  as  a  forerunner  of 
osteopathy,   122,   137. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  discoverer  of  cellu- 
lar anatomy,  116,  154. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  discoverer  of  pep- 
sin, 20. 

Sciatica,  caused  by  twisted  pelvis,  101. 

Scientific  men  themselves  are  not 
drug  takers,  183. 

Septicemia,  highly  virulent  streptococ- 
cic, 73. 

Septicemia,  74,  103. 

Septicemia,  rapid  action  of  toxins,  74. 

Serum  investigators  have  made  no 
great  claims,  184. 

Serum  therapy's  claims  summarized, 
187. 

Serum  test  for  cancer,  68. 

Serum  therapy,  its  beginning,  183. 

Serum  therapy  regarded  as  a  "worked 
out"  mine,  188. 

Serums  and  vaccines  are  not  true 
drugs,  49. 

Serums  and  vaccines,  90  per  cent  of 
claims  for,  false,  72. 

Serums  and  vaccines  overplayed  by 
ignorant  doctors,  72. 

Serums  and  vaccines  practically  fail  to 
cure  infections,  67. 

Serum  and  vaccine  therapy  possibili- 
ties regarded  as  now  exhausted,  188. 

Sleep  neutralizes  fatigue  toxins,  93. 

Smallpox,  27,  74,  180. 


215 


INDEX 


Smallpox  vaccination,   188. 

Sj>ecificity  of  antibodies,   151. 

Spinal  fever,  179. 

Spinal  lesion,  primary  and  secondary, 
43. 

Spinal  lesions  produced  by  toxins,  43. 

Spinal  meningitis,  188. 

Spinal  meningitis  serum,  a  failure,  187. 

Staphylococcus  pyogenes  aureus,  6, 
7,  74.  81,  202,  203. 

Still,  Andrew  Taylor,  M.  D.,  medical 
reformer,  2. 

Still  accomplished  more  than  any  other 
one  man  in  therapeutic  history,  54. 

Still,  a  doctor  of  the  old  school,  35. 

Still,  the  age  in  which  he  entered  upwn 
his  medical  researches,  18,  23. 

Still,  a  great  theoretical  thinker,  58. 

Still  anticipated  the  scientific  thinking 
of  Europe,  20,  22. 

Still  as  a  therapeutist,  37. 

Still  asserted  that  blood  and  tissues 
carried  their  own  chemical  mechan- 
ism of  cure,  44. 

Still,  chemisms  of  blood  and  lymph  his 
main  proposition,  55. 

Still  deserves  to  rank  with  scientists 
of  first  magnitude,  31. 

Still,  first  abolitionist  of  the  drug 
therapy,  54. 

Still,  originator  of  drugless  medicine,  54. 

Still  first  to  apply  the  biological  prin- 
ciple of  tropisms,  54. 

Still  first  to  conceive  the  theory  of 
immunity,  26. 

Still  first  to  perceive  the  fact  of  general 
immunity,  24,  53. 

Still  first  to  state  the  theory  of  im- 
munity, 37. 

Still  foretold  what  blood  research 
later  established,  157. 

Still  founded  the  first  broad  mechani- 
cal therapy,  54. 

Still,  the  fourth  great  medical  re- 
former, 5. 

Still  40  years  ahead  of  Europe  and  his 
age,  21. 

Still  gave  the  world  not  alone  a  new 
diagnosis  but  also  a  therapy,  166- 
168. 

Still  not  a  materialistic  thinker,  15. 

Still,  no  apology  needed  for  his  errors, 
32. 

Still  was  the  originator  of  drugless 
medicine,  48. 

Still  taught  the  germicidal  powers  of 
the  blood  and  tissues  long  before 
experimental  pathology  was  born, 
185. 

Still  was  the  pioneer  immunologist, 
202. 

Still's  "atoms  in  the  blood"  antici- 
pated "antibodies",  60. 

Still's  contribution  to  blood  research, 
166. 

Still's  dictum,  25. 

Still's  discovery  one  of  the  gigantic 
achievements  of  the  human  mind, 
168. 


Still's  early  theory  of  "blood  seed",  33. 
Still's  generalizations  uninfluenced  by 

other  reformers,   51. 
Still's   ideas   general   in   principle  and 

application,  56. 
Still's  law  of  general  immunity,  13. 
Still's  perception  of  drug  action  proved 

by    pharmacologists,    50. 
Still's  powerful  and  original  mind,  18. 
Still's  spinal  lesion  theory,  12. 
Still's  theories  antedated  the  science  of 

bacteriology,  20. 
Still's  theory  of  immunity  his  greatest 

institution,  24. 
Still's  theory  of  the  spinal  lesion,  16. 
Still's  two  grand  generalizations  15,  68. 
Still's  two  prime  theories   23. 
Staphylococcus,  107. 
Starch  digestion,  impairment  of,   110. 
Statistics,  medical,  indecisive,  208. 
Stiffness  of  spinal  tissue,  43. 
Stimulation,     180. 
Stimulation,   osteopathic,   55. 
Streptococcus,      107. 
Streptococcus    pyogenes,  6,  7,  73,   88, 

199.  200.202.  203. 
Streptococcus     pyogenes,     in     "rheu- 
matic" heart.  105. 
Surgery'a  thing  apart  from  medicine.  22. 
Survival  of  the  fittest  well  exemplified 

in  nerve  inheritance,  132. 

Tabes  dorsalis,  35. 

Teeth,  infections  of.   103. 

"Teeth,  pulling,  ruthlessly,  in  lieu  of 
treating  infections,  condemned.  108-9. 

Teeth,  pus  pockets  at  roots  of,  108. 

Tensions  of  spinal  tissues,  43. 

Tetanus  preventive  serum.  188. 

Theory  of  the  chemical  immunity  of 
the  body.  23. 

Theory  of  the  mechanical  lesion,  23. 

Therapy,  general,  there  is  no,  except 
osteopathy.  15. 

Thomson.  IS. 

Tissues,  174. 

Tonsils,  ruthless  removal  of,  con- 
demned,   108. 

Tonsillectomy,  promiscuous,  condemn- 
ed, 99. 

Tonsillectomy  when  tissue  is  unin- 
fected, condemned,  97. 

Tonsillitis,  179,  200. 

Tonsillitis,  virulent,  88. 

Toxins.  70,  71.  178. 

Toxins,  cause  of  osteopathic  lesions,  69. 

Toxins  of  septicemia.  74 

Toxins,  true  cure  for  lies  in  the  fluids 
and  tissues  of  the  body  itself,  134. 

Tropisms.  54.  55 

Tropisms.  osteopathy  produces  in  the 
body.  41. 

Tuberculosis.   180. 

Tubercular  bacilli,  195. 

Tumors,  30,  58. 

Typhoid  bacilli,  killed  by  normal 
blood  serum,  145,  146. 


216 


INDEX 


Typhoid   fever,   actual    treatment   of, 

impossible  except  by  osteopathy,  156, 

157. 
Typhoid  fever,  no  known  serum  will 

cure,  154. 
Typhoid  fever,  no  serum  for,  206. 
Typhoid  fever  vaccine  is  prophylactic 

not  therapeutic,   155. 
Typhlitis,   190. 

Uhlenhut,  30. 

Unicellular  animals  and  plants,  120. 

Vaccine,  a,  how  made,  64. 

Vaccines  and  serums  not  true  "drugs," 

49. 
Vaccines   and   serums   practically  fail 

to  cure  infections,  67. 
Vaccines     and     serums     theoretically 

should  work  but  do  not,  67,  69. 
Vaccines  and  serums  are  two  different 

things,  65. 
Vaccine  staphylococcic,  87. 


Vaccine  therapy  less  successful  in 
infections  than  osteopathy,  75. 

Vaccine,  typhoid,  92. 

Vertebrates,  main  ultimate  etiological 
factors  in  diseases  of,  15. 

Virchow,  7,  8,  9,  19,  22. 

Virchow,  had  no  nfluence  against 
drugs,  50. 

Virulence  of  germs  lessened  by  osteo- 
pathic manipulation,  88. 

Wallace,  10. 

Wasserman  reaction  for  syphilis,  68. 

Weissman,  34. 

Widal  reaction,  68. 

Widal  test  to  detect  typhoid,  152-3. 

Wright,  Sir  Almroth  E.,  84. 

Wright,  bacteriologists  cannot  repeat 

him,  74. 
Wright's  claims  exaggerated,  87. 
Wright's  vaccines,  187, 

Yellow  fever,  27,  180. 


217 


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1918 
Lane,  Michael  A. 

Dr.  A.   T,  Still  foxinder  of  osteopathy 


MEDICAL  SCIENCES  LIBRARY 

UNIYERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  IRVINE 

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